Egyptian Chariot The fi rst high-speed vehicle was the chariot a two-wheeled carriage pulled by a horse It was invented about 4,000 years ago and was used by soldiers in ancient Egypt (cid:44)(cid:81)(cid:87)(cid:85)(cid:82)(cid:71)(cid:88)(cid:70)(cid:87)(cid:76)(cid:82)(cid:81) The car was invented more than a century ago Now there are one billion of them on the world’s roads Long before cars people were building roads and traveling in other vehicles The wheel was invented about 6,000 years ago In place of an engine vehicles were hauled along roads by animals HERON OF ALEXANDRIA In the first century A D an Egyptian named Heron invented a machine called the aeolipile It used jets of steam to spin a ball Heron used his gadget as a toy but he realized it could also be used to power machines That makes the aeolipile the first engine POWER PEOPLE 4
Road Networks The ancient empires of Rome and Persia had many roads They were fl at and straight and they were the fastest way to get around The roads were paved with stones which prevented heavy carts and marching soldiers from sinking into the soft ground Stagecoach Before the car was invented the fastest way to travel was by stagecoach The fi rst stagecoach services began in Britain in the 1640s As its name suggests the coach made each journey in stages The coach stopped off at staging posts to get fresh horses and collect letters or the post 5
(cid:56)(cid:81)(cid:71)(cid:72)(cid:85)(cid:3)(cid:54)(cid:87)(cid:72)(cid:68)(cid:80) The fi rst self-propelled vehicle was a massive three-wheeled wagon powered by a steam engine It was built in 1769 by French inventor Nicolas Cugnot On its fi rst journey the carriage hit a wall in what was the world’s fi rst traffi c accident THE WOODEN WAGON could carry cannon barrels on the back LARGE BACK WHEELS could roll across rough ground Cugnot’s vehicle was designed as a gun carriage for hauling heavy guns across muddy battlefi elds It had a top speed of 2 5 miles per hour 4 km h about as fast as a person walks but the engine ran out of coal in just 15 minutes Steaming Ahead The steam engine hung at the front A jet of steam fl owing out of the boiler pushed two pistons up and down This motion then turned the front wheel pushing the carriage forward TIMELINE (cid:20)(cid:24)(cid:19)(cid:19)(cid:86) Suspension Craftsmen in Kocs Hungary build wagons that hang between the wheels so they bounce less on bumpy roads They are named the kocsi or coach 6 1698 Steam Pump English inventor Thomas Savery makes the fi rst steam engine It was used to pump water out of mines right (cid:20)(cid:27)(cid:19)(cid:20) Puffing Devil Englishman Richard Trevithick drives his steam-powered car named Puffi ng Devil through the Cornish town of Camborne Water pushed up pipe by steam
THE DRIVER steered by using a lever to move the front wheel POWER PEOPLE EDGAR HOOLEY In the 1800s roads were covered in loose gravel For a smooth ride drivers had to wait until 1901 when Englishman Edgar Hooley covered the stones in tar making hard dust-free tarmac A PIPE carried steam to the pistons THE PISTONS were connected to the front wheel Left wheel can spin more slowly than right one when vehicle turns left Smaller cogs allow the wheels to spin separately (cid:20)(cid:27)(cid:22)(cid:21) Differential Gear A cog system allows the wheels on one axle to turn at different speeds making it easier to turn sharp corners Large cog is used to drive wheels in powered vehicle A COAL-FIRED FURNACE heated a tank of water to produce a supply of high-pressure steam (cid:20)(cid:27)(cid:25)(cid:21) Internal Combustion Étienne Lenoir from Belgium builds a cart that is powered by a fl ammable gas that burns inside the engine the fi rst internal combustion engine 7
