Looking For The World's First Car

Looking For The World's First Car AG WORLD 28-1-23 I recently noticed a 4 cent U.S. postage stamp that carries the inscription "Steam Carriage 1866." I didn't know there were cars back that far so I decided to do some research. What I found might surprise you. Richard Dudgeon, of New York, ran his steam carriage many hundreds of miles and once covered a mile in under two minutes. Although the inventor claimed the carriage could carry 10 people at 14 mph on one barrel of anthracite coal, it was too far ahead of its time and failed to gain popular favor. This machine was called "Dudgeon's Steam Carriage" and it had automotive steering, rear wheel drive, and headlights. The driver sat at the rear. Surprisingly, I found out that the Dudgeon "car" was not even close to being the first ever. Most people think the first was a "road locomotive" built in 1803 by Richard Trevithick in Britain. Trevithick built his prototype at Camborne, Cornwall and ran it for several hundred yards up a hill with several people hanging onto it. Unfortunately, while they were in a pub celebrating the event, the steam-powered vehicle set fire to the shed it was in and destroyed itself. Undaunted, the following year Trevithick took out a patent for his road carriage and started putting one together in London. The machine's 8-ft. dia. wheels were intended to smooth out the road surfaces of the time so as to avoid the fire being shaken out. The forked piston reduced the distance between the single cylinder and the crankshaft and was considered a particular novelty. A spring-operated valve gear was used to minimize the weight of the flywheel which overcame one of the drawbacks of other industrial engines at the time. On completion, the London Steam Carriage was driven about 10 miles through the streets of London with seven or eight guest passengers. This was the first official trip of a self-powered passenger-carrying vehicle in the world. While the experiment was considered successful technically and the vehicle could have been developed, it proved unpopular mainly because it terrified horses. It was for this reason that the media and public largely ignored its significance. During a trip on a subsequent evening, Trevithick and his colleague crashed the carriage. As a result of this and lack of sales, the vehicle was scrapped. Not all the details of the machine are known but the patent drawings have survived, as have drawings made at the time by a naval engineer who was sent to examine it. A replica of Trevithick's 1803 steam carriage was recently constructed and displayed throughout Europe.

To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.