3.2 The First Steam Powered Motorised Vehicles

• China: There are reports that a small steam powered trolley car was built by Ferdinand Verbiest (Belgian) in about 1672.

• Verbiest constructed this vehicle whilst working in China as a Jesuit missionary.

• Because this vehicle was capable of transporting a person, some believe that it may have been the world's first, if very basic, motorised car.

• France: In 1769 Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot constructed a three-wheeled steam powered wagon.

• The vehicle was designed to be used by the French Army as a tractor to haul cannons.

• Cugnot's vehicle had a top speed of nearly 4 kph (2.5 mph) and was able to pull about 4 tonnes (4000kg). The single front wheel was steered by a tiller.

• By 1771 he had built a second vehicle.

• It was never used on public roads, possibly only being driven in the grounds of the arsenal where it was constructed.

• Some believe that the vehicle could be considered a motorised car because it could also carry four people.

• This important vehicle still exists.

• Britain: In 1799 Richard Trevithick was the first person to successfully build a high pressure steam engine.

• The new design allowed him to build a more compact and lighter steam engine.

• In 1801 he built a three-wheeled steam road carriage called the “Puffing Devil” fitted with his high pressure “strong steam” engine.

• It is reported to have weighed 3,344 lbs (1,520 kg) fully loaded and had a top speed of 9 mph (14.5 kph).

• On Christmas Eve of that year the vehicle carried several men some distance. This was possibly the first public demonstration of transportation by a motorised car. Four days later it was destroyed by fire.

• By 1803 he had built another three-wheeled steam carriage called the “Puffing Dragon”, complete with seats and a “real carriage like appearance”.

• In 1803 he drove it in London on demonstration runs and reached speeds of 8-9 mph (13-14 kph).

• Some believe the “Puffing Dragon” was the world's first passenger car.
  
  

• United States: William James built several steam powered vehicles and drove one of them on the streets of New York in 1829.

• In about 1851 John Kenrick Fisher built a carriage for the American Steam Carriage Co. that had a top speed of 15 mph (24 kph).

• Italy: The Bordino steam carriage was built in 1854.

• The four-wheeled vehicle consisted of a Landau carriage body mounted on a chassis to which four wooden wheels were attached.

• The rear mounted boiler provided steam to drive the twin cylinder steam engine mounted below the carriage.