|
|
|
 You may take that gleaming automobile in your driveway a little bit for granted. You just hop in, start it up, and the world is your oyster! But it wasn’t always this way. Once upon a time travel was a lot harder. Self-propelled automobiles were the dream of many people going back a lot further than you might imagine. In 1680 Sir Isaac Newton devised a car propelled by a jet of steam which was directed at the rear of the car. He thought of this just after the apple beaned him on the head. Other attempts like this were unsuccessful, or the results worked but were impractical and just considered toys. It took almost 200 years before a successful steam engine car was built. Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot, a French military engineer designed and built a three wheeled steam powered tractor which was to be used for hauling artillery pieces. A second one, built in 1870, is still on display at the National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts in Paris, France. The engine used in the apparatus was his own design, based on Denis Papin’s theories about steam power. Although the thing worked, it was just too cumbersome with too many problems regarding pressure maintenance and water supply to be practical, and was abandoned. It proved the feasibility of the concept, but the design had to be worked out by someone else. Richard Trevithick worked out the problems blocking the high pressure steam engine. This reduced the size and weight of the steam engine enough to allow the engine to be more portable than it had previously been. A forerunner of his steam locomotive, his steam powered carriage took him on a Christmas Eve ride up a hill near Camborne, Cornwall in 1801. Steam powered busses provided transit service regularly in Paris, France by 1800. And from 1890 to 1800 Apollo Kinsley of Hartford, Connecticut and Nathan Read of Salem, Massachusetts were using steam vehicles in America. By the 1830’s the business of building steam engine cars was a growing business. In England commercial routes for the steam carriages were established. In 1831 the nine mile Gloucester route ran four times a day. Over 3000 passengers rode a total of 4000 miles on this route, sometimes in as little as forty-five minutes. These steam engine cars were noisy, dirty and dangerous. Their weight tore up the roads and led to sometimes hostile opposition from the local population. Roads were sometimes blocked with trees to prevent their passage. This line preceded the first rail line. Lighter steam cars for as few as two passengers were developed, but in England the people had enough of the steam conveyances. Restrictive laws were passed, and the steam car was banned from the roads in England. The Stanley brothers - Francis Edgar and Freelan O - developed their famous Stanley Steamers in the United States. Intense competitors, they raced them from 1902 until 1909, frequently beating larger gas powered cars. One of their cars set the speed record in 1906 at 127 MPH. The Stanley Steamer was manufactured until 1920’s when it was supplanted by gas cars using the internal combustion engine Steamship History Back To Transportation History |