The power struggle

PART ONE

I. THE HISTORY OF THE CAR

There have been many inventions during the Twentieth Century – the telephone, air travel, television and the atomic bomb – are just four with universal impact. But one stands out from the crowd as having had more influence on more people in more places – the car.

The significance of the motor car to the recent history of civilization is beyond question. The car¢ s precise date of introduction, however, will be debated for decades to come. That¢ s because, ever since the invention of the wheel around 4000 BC, humans have tried to design a self-propelled machine to replace the horse.

Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler may have been credited with producing the first vehicles powered by the internal combustion engine in 1885, but the origins of the car go back as far as the Old Testament. This foretold of machines propelling themselves on land and the air. The great 13-th-century scientist and philosopher Roger Bacon predicted the advent of machine-powered vehicles on land and water, while Leonardo de Vinci¢ s diagrams of a self-propelled carriage are a matter of record. In 1472, Roberto Valturio described a machine (рис. 1) designed for war purposes, which was to be moved by means of large windmills transmitting their motion through cranks and gears. Clockwork and wind-assisted vehicles all played their part in the pre-history of the car but the greatest influence came from the Steam Age. In the early 1760s Frenchman Captain Nicolas Joseph Cugnot built a powerful steam-driven tractor to tow artillery hardware. Only partly successful, it was left to a group of British, American and European inventors to pursue the development further. Of these, Richard Trevithick¢ s London Carriage was both the most practical and effective.

The steam era saw, not only the advent of a succession of road coaches, but also the more recent railway locomotive. The former was handicapped by public resistance and government legislation, while those involved in the horse trade saw these new contraptions as a danger to their livelihood. This led not only to heavy taxation through toll roads but also the implementation of the Red Flag Act. This ruled that all forms of ¢ road locomotives¢ should have a man with a red flag walking ahead of them. This ridiculous law was not repealed until many years later.

Рис. 1

The power struggle

It was the development of the internal combustion engine from the mid-1800s onwards which spurred inventors on to develop ¢ horseless carriages ¢. Nikolaus Otto is generally regarded as being the father of today¢ s petrol engine but its origins date back much further. The initial idea can be traced to the 1670s, from when there survive the first descriptions of a piston sliding within the cylinder, powered by gun powder – in effect, a development of the cannon. This was put into practice by a number of engineers, one of whom was the Swiss, Francois Issac de Rivaz, who even used electricity to supply the ignition.

Arguments still rage today among automotive historians concerning the identity of the individual who created the first ¢ true¢ internal combustion engine. Etienne Lenior won the race to patent his design first in 1859, but the Italians Barsanti and Matteucci had working designs on display several years earlier. Lenior¢ s patent was more in line with the modern engine as we know it however, and was a spur to future innovators like Nickolaus Otto, Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz. Otto¢ s four-stroke engine (the four ¢ strokes¢ of the cycle being: Induction, Compression, Ignition, Exhaust) was a refinement of Lenior¢ s idea, and provided the motive power for the motor car in more ways than one (рис. 2).

Otto had a though time realizing his vision. Having learned of Lenior¢ s gas engine, and being further inspired by seeing the Barsanti and Matteucci idea on a trip to England, he developed a similar unit designed to run on liquid fuel. However, as the history of the automobile constantly shows, some of the greatest innovators had poor business minds. Otto needed future car enthusiast Eugen Langen to both help secure a patent and also see the venture through bleak times when technical problems halted sales for a while.

It is unfair to credit any one person with the creation of the car. Gottlieb Daimler, who worked with Otto until their differing views caused a fall-out, developed his own engines. These were not solely for car use, but he did build the first four-wheel horseless carriage. Karl Benz, who lived less than 100 miles away, designed his advanced tricycle which proved to the first truly purpose-built machine. Amazingly, not only did the pair never meet, but were even unaware of each other¢ s efforts as they worked on parallel designs.

By 1886 the motor car was definitely ready to roll.

Рис. 2