The story of the transformation of a self-propelled carriage into modern car

1.2.1 The first carts

From time immemorial, man strived to make his life easier by transferring his work to others. That’s how the slave-owning system appeared ... but we are not talking about this era of development of civilization. The man wanted to move something very heavy, to move the load, using not one hundred people, but one person, who is equipped with some kind of mechanism that would help to cope with this task. When human strength was not enough, as a rule, animals, for example, horses were used. The horses turned out to be a very profitable mover - it took a little time water and hay for them to regain their strength, and the power reserve was enough for several miles. Later, people realized that riding on horseback was rather tiring and invented carriages. And everything would be fine, but a person constantly lacks something. Horse can cover a little distance, it moves slowly and with a little comfort. For even at first glance, well-protected carriages for the kings reminded of their leaks by the crunch of sand on the teeth of passengers. War was another important factor… Due to the fact that a horse can be killed in a battle, the question arose of replacing it with an inanimate object.

1.2.2 Self-propelled cart

That’s why in the middle to the end of the 17th century, a self-moving carriage on steam traction was invented (an example diagram is shown in the Figure 1.1). Military engineer Nicolas Cugno, a French citizen, was the inventor of this miracle of engineering.

Figure 1.1 Self-moving carriage invented by Cugno.

This carriage moved slowly (its speed did not exceed 4 km/h) and required frequent stops for maintaining the water level in the boiler and the normal heating intensity. There was no horse, but it was dangerous to conduct war using such equipment. Attempts to create something similar were undertaken later, but not with such enthusiasm: the country had a need to conduct war here and now, and it was inappropriate to waste time on the development of revolutionary projects. However, the search for the ideal power unit did not stop for a minute.

1.2.3 Lighting gas engine

So, in 1801, the Frenchman Monsieur Le Bon took a patent for the design of an engine running on illumination gas. Nevertheless, he failed to achieve more or less significant success. Time passed by, and several more inventors from various countries made attempts to create a workable illumination gas engine, but without success. And only in 1859-1860, some Etienne Lenoir (again a Frenchman), guessed to ignite the illumination gas directly inside the engine cylinder. In fact, this citizen came close to the idea of inventing an internal combustion engine (ICE).

However, upon starting the unit, he was soon disappointed, as it jammed due to overheating of the pistons.

Figure 1.2 Example of use of design methods that take into account aerodynamic features of the body in car industry.

1.2.4 The history of the invention of the four-stroke engine

Then the resourceful Frenchman thought of inventing a primitive cooling system - the engine started up again and ... again for a short time. Lenoir drew a line, but not the last, under his experiments after the introduction of the lubrication system. But the operation of this unit was more like the operation of a steam engine, which nullified all its possibilities. It had a very low coefficient of performance (COP) and, as a result, only 2 hp. with 18 liters of volume.

In less than 20 years (in 1876), a German engineer and self-taught inventor - Nikolaus August Otto - created and patented a four-stroke internal combustion engine. Compression stroke, which made it possible to significantly increase the power taken from a unit of volume, was its peculiarity. But the engine is not the whole car. In order for it to somehow fit into the design of the vehicle, there was a need for a more convenient, transportable fuel.

The invention of gasoline solved this problem. First self-moving carriages running on gasoline were invented very soon. One of the pioneers in this direction was the great Gottlieb Daimler. In 1885 he introduced the “great-grandfather” of the motorcycle - a two-wheeled self-moving vehicle with an internal combustion engine. It was a motorcycle, but not a car.

Figure 1.3 Two-wheel carriage (motorcycle) invented by Gottlieb Daimler.

The latter, by the way, was patented in 1886, by Daimler and Karl Benz independently of each other.

Figure 1.4 Self-moving carriage invented by Gottlieb Daimler.

Disputes about who should be considered the father-inventor of the car lasted more than one year. After long litigation, the primacy was given to Benz, because he created his self-moving carriage from beginning to end singlehandedly.

Figure 1.5 Self-moving carriage invented by Karl Benz.

But no one was going to stop there. Even very noisy, smoking and oil-stinking carriages started attracting many people. Many did not see the point in buying an expensive toy. However, this did not hinder their development. Even more - at the end of the 19th – at the beginning of the 20th century, the first electric vehicles that were ahead of their time by almost a hundred years were invented. But, alas, at that time there were no technologies for creating sufficiently capacious batteries that could make it impossible to travel even over short distances.

1.2.5 First auto racing

Having considered the possibilities of internal combustion engines in time, enterprises for the manufacturing of cars started appearing like mushrooms after an autumn rain. But these vehicles  were still manufactured manually and were ultimately very expensive, which made them unpopular. Sports became the advertising platform for them, as is often the case. The world's first auto races for popularizing cars took place on July 22, 1894 in France. 

The goal was at least to get to the finish line without any breakdowns. The goal was to overcome 126 km. Generally, this figure sounds ridiculous, but not for that time. Peugeot and Panhard vehicles with internal combustion engines from Daimler were the winners of that race.

1.2.6 Conveyor assembly

Once the cars began to be in the market, only select persons could afford to buy them, because, as it was already mentioned above, they were expensive. This resulted in low sales. Many young companies could not compete with more eminent ones and disappeared.

 Great engineer, designer and genius businessman, Henry Ford, who in 1913 launched line assembly of the Ford-T model (Tin Lizzie), which he invented in 1908, decided to correct this situation. In this way, Ford managed to keep the price of a midsize car as low as possible. The aforementioned can only be supplemented with numbers: in the period  until 1917, 785,432 cars were sold. This led to a decrease in the price of the "T" model to $ 350.

1.2.7 Industrial surge

Once more, the force for the development of the automotive industry was the war, more precisely, the military, who started thinking about where and how vehicles could be used. This is how multi-axle trucks were invented. Engines, gearboxes and other units of the vehicle were improved, the reliability of vehicles increased. 

Many inventions were transferred and are still being transferred to the automotive industry from aviation. In this “winged” industry all kinds of air blowers began to be installed, aerodynamic calculations were applied for the first time. It was after the Second World War that an industrial surge occurred: ingenious and inherently revolutionary developments began to appear. However, many inventions that appeared then, remained in the form of developments until better times, since it was technologically impossible to implement them. Some design methods were transferred from the aviation industry to the automotive industry. Thus, Saab Company was the first in the world to use a wind tunnel for optimizing the body shape of its models. 

This was followed by the invention of spoilers in motorsport thanks to the great Colin Chapman. The first drive compressors, turbochargers, centrifugal compressors - all this and much more took root and remains until now in the automotive industry.

 Production engineering improved over time and this bore fruit. For example, in 1954, the legendary Mercedes-Benz SL “Gull Wing” appeared at an automobile exhibition - a light body, an engine with direct fuel injection into the cylinder (albeit mechanical) and fascinating doors that opened upwards (hence the name).

Figure 1.6 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing, 1954 year of production.

Or let’s take, for example, the BMW 507, which was manufactured in 1956: the all-aluminum engine was a miracle for that time, and the body was also made out of light metal. Yes, the car turned out to be very expensive. Yes, only 252 copies were manufactured, but it was ahead of its time and became the forerunner of the introduction of the latest technologies. After all, Audi Company started mass-producing a car with an all-aluminum body only in 1994, presenting the world with a new model - A8.

Figure 1.7 BMW 507, 1956 year of production.

1.2.8 Security implementation

After the WWII, when the growth of car production started gaining unprecedented rates, the number of cars started growing exponentially. Cars became more comfortable, heavier, and more powerful. This led to very disastrous consequences, because with the growth of speeds, the number of car accidents increased. Statistics of deaths on the roads appeared, which screamed and begged for the introduction of any safety means. 

But manufacturing companies refused to take any action, suggesting that the safety features would disrupt the car's aesthetics. With pain and misery, they started installing seat belts on cars. The first of them was an ordinary tissue tape that encircled a person. However, such a scheme did not solve all the problems, since in case of a collision a person could slip under the belt, hit his chest against  the steering wheel and get injuries incompatible with life. Designer Niels Bohlin came up with the solution of this problem, and in 1959 the three point seat belt was introduced on the Volvo PV544 model, which was left unchanged to this day.

It is also worth mentioning designer Belo Bareni – the father of passive safety. He was the smartest person, thanks to whom the so-called deformation zones started appearing in the structure of the bodies, due to which the impact force was extinguished several times.

Figure 1.8 Example of effect of body deformation zones.

1.2.9 First SUV car

If moving from sad to interesting, it is worth mentioning the world's first serial passenger car with permanent all-wheel drive - VAZ 2121 "Niva" (production started in 1977). The concept of this car as a light SUV with excellent comfort indicators, and even with all-wheel drive, became a breakthrough. Now this class of cars is called SUV, and it is one of the most popular in the world.

1.2.10 Automotive industry development

A whole book would not be enough to describe everything that has appeared over the past fifty years. But it should be mentioned that difficulties for the subsequent development of the automotive industry arose in each period of history (either a fuel crisis, or an environmental crisis). The genius of engineering accepted each obstacle as a challenge, adequately fulfilling the tasks set that sometimes seemed insoluble. This is how variable cam timing systems, electronic fuel injection systems, active and passive safety systems, systems for changing the valve opening height, hybrid systems and much more appeared.