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Article: Time trip.(short history of the automobile)
- Article from:
- Current Events, a Weekly Reader publication
- Article date:
- April 8, 2005
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Weekly Reader Corp. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Imagine showing up at the prom in these wheels! This steam-powered car (left) was the first self-propelled road vehicle ever built. Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot produced the military tractor in 1769 to haul artillery for the French army. Cugnot's creation definitely had drawbacks; its top speed was 2.5 miles per hour, and it ran out of steam after 10 to 15 minutes of use. Cugnot himself wasn't perfect either--he got into the world's first car accident two years later, when he ran his second creation into a wall.
An American, Oliver Evans, put his own spin on steam-powered vehicles in 1804 with the Oruktor Amphibolos, or "Amphibious Digger. The Oruktor was a ...