Randall Bart <Barticus@att.spam.net> wrote in
news:dujklv82q1qjbdj3kqmn44j82odve5e0rp@4ax.com:

> 'Twas Fri, 05 Sep 2003 19:56:16 GMT when all alt.privacy.spyware
> stood in awe as LESLIE@JRLVAX.HOUSTON.RR.COM (leslie) uttered:
>
>>Nicolas Joseph Cugnot...
>>
>> http://inventors.about.com/library/w...carssteama.htm
>> The History of the Automobile - Steam Cars
>>
>> "...In 1769, the very first self-propelled road vehicle was a
>> military
>> tractor invented by French engineer and mechanic, Nicolas
>> Joseph Cugnot (1725 - 1804). Cugnot used a steam engine to
>> power his vehicle, built under his instructions at the Paris
>> Arsenal by mechanic Brezin. It was used by the French Army to
>> haul artillery at a whopping speed of 2 1/2 mph on only three
>> wheels. The vehicle had to stop every ten to fifteen minutes to
>> build up steam power. The steam engine and boiler were separate
>> from the rest of the vehicle and placed in the front (see
>> engraving above). The following year (1770), Cugnot built a
>> steam-powered tricycle that carried four passengers.
>>
>> In 1771, Cugnot drove one of his road vehicles into a stone
>> wall, making Cugnot the first person to get into a motor
>> vehicle accident. This was the beginning of bad luck for the
>> inventor. After one of Cugnot's patrons died and the other was
>> exiled, the money for Cugnot's road vehicle experiments
>> ended..."
>
> Thank you. The way it was presented on some PBS show, he crashed
> his first day out and gave up. This paints a very different
> picture. It seems Cugnot was memorable character after all. The
> vehicle was impractical in its time, and could only exist through
> the largesse of patrons. Genius inventors are always hindered by
> the primitive tools they have to work with.

For the record the first American automobile was built by the Duryea
brothers in 1896. This excludes some steam power contraptions built
earlier. By 1896 the European auto industry was well advanced.

http://www.modelt.org/articles/art_tcent.htm

Henry Ford invented almost nothing.

The Cugnot vehicle was intended to pull artillery for the French Army.
Had history been different Napoleon might have had his own blitzkrieg.

--
James E. Morrow
Email to: jamesemorrow@email.com