Car

The first automobile was steam-powered, built by Frenchman Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot in 1769. However, steam engines are huge, and German engine designer Karl Benz was convinced that smaller, more efficient internal combustion engines would do a better job.

Cugnot’s vehicle had two wheels at the back, and one at the front. The steam boiler was at the front.

Benz’s Patent Motorwagen No. 3 had three wheels and an engine in the rear. Driving the transportation REVOLUTION It’s the four-wheeled wonder that takes us on countless journeys every day.

Around the Benz

In 1885, Karl Benz made his first automobile, which featured steel and wood panels for the body, and steel wheels covered in rubber. To demonstrate how well the new machine worked, his wife and business partner Bertha Benz took off on the world’s first long-distance car journey, a 124-mile (200 km) round trip. During the expedition, she used a hatpin to clear a fuel line, invented brake linings, and insulated a wire with her underwear. Everyone was amazed by her adventure, and the car Became a success. Did you know? The number of cars on the world’s roads passed the one billion mark in 2010.

It paved the way for...

Mary anderson made it safer to drive in the rain when she invented the first

Windshield Wipers in 1903.

The first electric traffic lights started controlling traffic in 1912 in Salt Lake City, invented by policeman lester Wire.

American inventor Henry Ford wanted to make cars cheap and easy to run, and earn lots of money in the process. He invented the first conveyor belt–based assembly line in 1913 at his car-manufacturing plant in Michigan, where his most famous car, the Model T, could be put together in just over 90 minutes. During the 20th century, other manufacturers copied Ford, and cars sold by the millions.

By the way... The Bertha Benz Memorial Route opened in 2008 in Germany. Now everyone can follow in my tire tracks.

Cars allowed individuals to travel wherever they wanted, and became the world’s most popular How it changed the world transportation. As a result, cities became bigger since people could live farther from work, though pollution from car exhaust fumes has meant that the environment has suffered.

HOW In an internal combustion engine, fuel IT WO R KS burns (combusts) inside tubes called cylinders, producing hot gases that push pistons. The pistons turn a crankshaft that makes the car’s wheels move in a four-stroke cycle. The fuel in most engines these days is gasoline.

1. Intake

2. Compression

A mixture of air and gasoline enters the chamber.

The piston compresses the mixture, making it very hot. Spark plug ignites the mixture and drives the piston.

Chamber Crankshaft Gases from the explosion are expelled through the exhaust.

Piston

3. Combustion

4. Exhaust

car seat belts have been keeping drivers and passengers safe since the early 20th century.

road markers that reflect car headlights, known as “cat’s eyes,” were invented in 1933 by Percy Shaw.