68 - Friday. November 18, 1988 - North Shore News

NORTH’

orth A

merica

have a colorful history

BUSTLES AND handlebar
moustaches were in vogue when
North Annerica’s first successful
gasoline-powered car was built in
1893 by Charles and Franklyn
Duryea of Springfield,
Massachusetts.

Although motor vehicles had
been travelling the roads of Europe
for several years, the Duryea
brothers’ horseless buggy started
North America on the way to
world leadership in the manufac-
ture and use of automobiles.

Prior to this era, man’s mode of
land transportation had changed
little from the early days of civili-
zation when he invented the wheel
and tamed the horse. Occasionally
people tatked of the day when car-
tiages would be moved without
horses and history reveals several
novel experiments with propelled
land vehicles.

Years before, the Chinese and
the Dutch built chariots with sails
that used wind power. Other
devices were propelled by men
turning cranks or moving levers
and some obtained power from
jets of steam or springs. However,
none of them unseated the horse
and buggy.

During the 17th and 18th cen-
turies, Europeans were experimen-
ting with piston and cylinder

engines powered by steam or the
explosion of gun-powder. In 1769,
Captain Nicholas Cugnot of
France built and ran an artillery
tractor, which was powered by a
steam engine.

His efforts were far from a
complete success, but the vehicle
did travel about three miles per
hour between stops to build up
steam.

In 1801, Richard Trevithick of
England built and ran a steam-
powered carriage. In the 1820s and
30s many Englishmen constructed
and commercially operated steam
vehicles which carried passengers
and cargo.

However, their efforts were
severely hampered by conservative
countrymen who restricted them
from using the public roads. They
were forced to turn their attention
to operating trains of carriages on
private rails: thus giving birth to
railroads.

It was ebout this time that
Robert Anderson of neighboring
Scotland drove the first electric
carriage.

In 1860 a French engineer nam-
ed Lenoir invented an internal
combustion engine using il-
luminating gas for fuel and an

See Early
Page 70

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