home » landscaping » The first car in the world. The history of the creation of cars

The first car in the world. The history of the creation of cars

It is known that cars with steam engines were the first to be invented, and only a hundred years later they were replaced by cars with internal combustion engines. At the end of the nineteenth century, such a car was produced in Russia.

The first cars with steam engines

Appearing in the nineteenth century, steam-powered cars became very widespread. The first such machine was invented back in 1769 by the French inventor Cugno and was called the "Small Cugno Cart". She could reach speeds of up to four and a half kilometers per hour on the road, but there was only enough water and steam in her for only twelve minutes of movement.

In 1802, the English inventor Watt presented his version of the car, which developed speeds on a straight road up to fifteen kilometers per hour. In 1790, the American Nathan Reed presented his model of a steam car. Another American, Oliver Evans, created an amphibious vehicle fourteen years later.

In the nineteenth century, having become widespread, steam-powered cars were used to transport people. The person who controlled it was called the driver, the one who kindled the steam boiler was called the driver. It should be noted that cars have been improved many times, but remained very inconvenient for operation. The most famous cars of the second half of the nineteenth century were the "Curts" and "Mansel". Their speed did not exceed thirty-five kilometers. These cars are called the forerunners of the first real cars.

Even after the advent of internal combustion engines, enthusiasts and admirers of cars with steam engines continued to use them, making a number of improvements. It was possible to reduce the engine start time to sixty seconds. It is known that until the forties of the twentieth century, Europe and the United States continued to produce buses and trucks with steam engines, which were distinguished by low noise and smoothness.

What were the first cars with an internal combustion engine

The inventor of the internal combustion engine is E. Lenoir, who in 1860 was the first to create an engine in which fuel was burned inside the engine cylinder. This invention played a major role in the automotive industry. The first car with such an engine appeared in 1886. Its creator is G. Daimler. A few months later, the world got acquainted with the three-wheeled car of K. Benz. Gradually, new cars began to replace more bulky cars with steam engines. Thus, the year 1886 is officially recognized as the year of birth of the car.

Nine years after the invention and registration of a patent for the first car with an internal combustion engine, G. Daimler managed to launch the Daimler functional car into mass production. Karl Benz also did not lag behind and began the industrial production of his "brainchild". Thus began the mass production of cars. In 1892, a car built by G. Ford appeared, but only after eleven years did he begin its mass production.

Since 1894, car races began to be held, which in turn also influenced the development of the automotive industry. So, at the first races arranged, the maximum speed of a car reached twenty-four kilometers, five years later it reached seventy kilometers, and after another five years - one hundred kilometers per hour. Already in 1900, special racing cars began to be produced.

The first car in Russia

The first Russian car appeared in St. Petersburg in 1896. The carriage itself was built by Frese and Co. and resembled a foreign design with some improvements, namely, it was distinguished by the presence of rubber tires and a durable elegant finish. The engine for the car was built at the St. Petersburg plant of kerosene and gas engines by E. Yakovleva. They tried to make the cost of the car such that the Russian car could compete in price with similar representatives of Europe.

For the first time this two-seater crew with a gasoline engine (the car of Yakovlev and Frese) was presented at an exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod. It is known that on a flat bridge a car could reach speeds of up to twenty miles per hour, while refueling was enough for ten hours of movement.

The idea of creating the first Russian car arose back in 1893 at the World Columbian Exhibition, where Yakovlev engines and Frese crews were presented. The embodiment of the idea of \u200b\u200bcreating a car was presented only three years later at the Nizhny Novgorod exhibition.

The very first car in the world

Nicola Joseph Cugno is considered the man who created the world's first automobile. This happened in 1769 in France. To ensure the movement of the car, it was necessary to fill the boiler with water and light a fire under it, since it did not have its own firebox. The engineer carried out the order of the French military, namely the Minister of War Etienne Francois. It was planned to use Cugno's invention to transport artillery guns.

The car looked like a cart, but its movement was carried out not by horses, but by a steam engine. With a maximum speed of no more than five kilometers per hour, it had a carrying capacity of up to five tons.

During the tests, there were several accidents, and the project was closed. The disadvantages of the car are an inefficient braking system, the need for frequent stops to ignite the furnace, a rapid drop in pressure in the boiler.

And modern cars amaze with speed records. For example, some sports cars can accelerate from zero to hundreds in just 2.78 seconds. .
Subscribe to our channel in Yandex.Zen

In our time, it is very difficult to imagine existence without a car, how firmly it has entered human life. If half a century ago a personal car was considered almost a luxury item, now some families have two or three cars.

But do we know the history of the car, how it was born? In this article, we will take a closer look at how the history of the automotive industry was born, when the first cars appeared in Russia, what fuel they ran on.

Prototypes of the first car

The invention is always attributed to one person, so Karl Benz, who created the first self-propelled cart in 1886, is considered the inventor of the car. But in fact, there were attempts to design a car before, just Karl Benz became the first person to register his invention and receive a patent.

Hearing the name of Leonardo da Vinci, many immediately imagine the great artist. But not everyone knows that the great master of the brush was a talented architect and inventor. Historians have found drawings on which Leonardo da Vinci displayed a prototype of the future car. His ideas were not implemented at that time, but in 1752 the self-taught mechanic Leonty Shamshurenkov created the first self-propelled carriage, which was set in motion with the help of two people.

The steam engine was invented by Thomas Newcomen in 1705, the next invention was the automatic steam engine, it was built in 1765 by Ivan Ivanovich Polzunov, and four years later, the very first self-propelled machine was created on the basis of the steam engine by the French engineer Nicola Cugno. The tests were unsuccessful - the car turned out to be difficult to drive and crashed into a wall, and Ivan Polzunov himself did not live to this day, dying of consumption in 1766.

What was the first car filled with?

The first prototypes of the future car were powered by steam, but steam engines were bulky and more suitable for steam locomotives. For the engines of self-propelled vehicles, a different fuel was required, and at the beginning of the 19th century, experiments were already being carried out with oil. In particular, in Russia (near Ukhta) at the end of the 18th century, a plant operated, which was engaged in the preliminary purification of oil. Michael Faraday was the first person to obtain real gasoline in 1825.

The invention of cracking (the splitting of hydrocarbons) belongs to the Russian engineer Shukhov, due to this method it was possible to achieve an increase in the volume of gasoline produced from oil with a much better efficiency. It was with such gasoline that the very first car was refueled in the future.

In order for the car to go, a motor was needed. The first internal combustion engine, which was invented by Isaac de Rivaz, ran on hydrogen, its design had the same connecting rod and piston system as a modern automobile engine. The French-Swiss inventor patented his "brainchild" in 1807, and based on the engine he created a wheeled cart (in 1808). But the invention of Francois Isaac de Rivaz was not successful - the efficiency of the motor was very small, the trolley itself did not find application.

The first mass-produced internal combustion engine was patented in 1859 by Jacques Etienne Lenoir, a Belgian engineer. Its motor ran on a gas mixture and was ignited by an electric spark. A spool was installed in the engine, and exhaust gases escaped through it. The efficiency of the power plant was only 4%, however, the internal combustion engine was much smaller and quieter than the steam engines that existed at that time. The invention began to be popular, and Lenoir was a success.

Based on the Lenoir engine in 1863, August Otto creates a more advanced two-stroke internal combustion engine, the efficiency of which grows up to 15%. Inspired by success, the German engineer continues to work on the invention, and in 1876 he receives a patent for the invention of the world's first four-stroke engine. The internal combustion engine, created by August Otto, is the prototype of all modern engines that also work on a four-stroke scheme.

Together with August Otto, Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach have been working on the development of the engine for some time, but disagreements arise between colleagues, and in 1880 Daimler and Maybach leave Otto and open their workshop. It was Daimler who created a truly workable gasoline internal combustion engine, which became the engine for the world's first car.

Gottlieb Daimler - the first to find a variety of uses for gasoline - he created a motorcycle by installing a small engine on it. It should be noted that the vehicle was not fast by today's standards, it could only reach speeds of 12 km / h.

Karl Benz received a patent for the invention of the car on January 29, 1886, this very day is considered the date of the invention of the very first car in the world. The first car created by Karl Benz was three-wheeled, and if you look at the photo of this invention, you can be surprised at the primitiveness of a self-propelled cart. For the first time, Benz demonstrated his car to the public at the end of 1885, and in 1888 mass production of cars began.

At the same time, G. Daimler also installed engines on wagons, but K. Benz assembled his car from scratch. Daimler also established its own production - its engines and self-propelled carts were sold all over the world, products were most in demand in France, where Daimler cars gained great popularity. In 1994, the first Paris-Rouen car race (125 km) was organized, and the whole world was convinced of the practicality of cars.

Cars began to be popular with the population, and by 1900, Benz had sold two thousand of his cars, becoming the world's largest automaker. Rich people bought cars, since this “toy” was not cheap. Basically, a car was not bought as a means of transportation - the rich by purchasing such a vehicle asserted their status in society, showed off in front of other people.

The first Benz car had an engine capacity of just under 1 liter, and with such an engine it was impossible even to accelerate. For machines put into mass production, an internal combustion engine of 1.7 liters was used, and the transmission was a two-stage gearbox. The Benz car developed a maximum speed of up to 19 km / h, in 1893 the first 4-wheeled cars appeared.

In 1897, Emil Jellinek bought a Daimler Phoenix car, and those around the businessman liked the car so much that Emil Jellinek asked Daimler to produce several more cars, which he named after his daughter Mercedes. Thus, the name of the well-known Mercedes brand appeared, and the Austrian businessman joined the company with his capital, later becoming a member of the board of DMG.

But not only Benz and Daimler existed at the dawn of the automotive industry - by 1900, the automotive industry began to develop in Belgium (Vincke), Switzerland (Rudolf Egg), Italy (Fiat), Sweden (Vagnfabrik AB). The first Peugeot car was produced in 1889, it worked with a steam engine. A year after meeting with Gottlieb Daimler, Armand Peugeot decided to install a gasoline engine created under license from Daimler. The first Peugeot engines were created in 1896, and they already had their own design.

The first car assembled in Russia was presented at the Nizhny Novgorod art and industrial exhibition; it was manufactured by the Frese factory and the Yakovlev factory. Frese and Yakovlev's car was equipped with:

single-cylinder four-stroke engine (2 hp);
two speed gearbox.

The technical characteristics of the Russian car are as follows:

vehicle length 3200 mm;
width - 1530 mm;
height - 1440 mm (with a complex awning);
front wheel diameter - 680 mm;
rear wheel diameter - 836 mm;
wheelbase - 1037 mm;
car weight - 300 kg.

Such equipment could reach speeds of up to 21 km / h, like all cars of that time, Frese and Yakovlev's car looked like a carriage. At that time, the subframes on cars were made of wooden beams, the same subframe was on Russian cars. The rims of those years were very similar to bicycle wheels or carriage wheels - they had wooden spokes, but the tires themselves were still rubber.

The engine on the car was located under the body, and it was installed horizontally, cylinder back. The car was equipped with a carburetor, and the air-fuel mixture was ignited by a spark in the combustion chamber when the contacts were opened.

Two candle lights were installed in front of the car, there was a signal horn. The car provided for a brake pedal, but the gas control was manual. The carriage (if you can call the interior of the car that way) was equipped with a folding leather top, instead of a steering wheel there was a lever.

The first Russian car could not move backward, since it had only two gears - “forward” and “neutral”. Speeds were switched using levers mounted on the steering column. The car also provided for a handbrake, which went to the rear wheels. Here you can list the following design features of the car:

engine cooling - water;
fuel reserve is designed for 214 kilometers;
the ignition timing was adjusted using a "coin" (as on motorcycles);
there was a silencer;
speeds were switched using belts that moved to the corresponding pulleys.

The car was shown to Tsar Nicholas II, but he reacted coolly to the novelty. After the Nizhny Novgorod exhibition, the car was returned to Moscow, where it disappeared from view, only two photos remained of it.

The history of the car is described in many books in all languages of the world. In each book, the authors report that in such and such a year in such and such a city, such and such an inventor built the first self-propelled carriage. In search of a name for the new machine, the inventor turned to Latin and Greek, the classical languages of science. In Greek, "self" will be "autos", and "mobile" in Latin - "mobilis". So the newborn car got its name.

French authors see the beginning of the history of the automobile in a late 18th century steam wagon built in Paris; English - in steam stagecoaches that cruised the roads of England in the first half of the 19th century; German - in "horseless carriages" with internal combustion engines that appeared in Germany in the 80s of the 19th century. The most "backward" are the representatives of the "car nation" - the Americans. Mentioning only in passing about the various European, Chinese, Egyptian predecessors of the car, they describe in detail its development, starting from the very end of the 19th century, from the gasoline carts of their compatriots - Hines, Ford, Olds.

Russian historians could begin their story at any stage in the development of the car - with Kulibin's muscle-strength scooter, which anticipated the scheme of the first gasoline cars; with the invention by Polzunov of the first universal engine - a continuous steam engine; from the construction of an engine for liquid fuel at the Okhtenskaya shipyard in St. Petersburg or from the “gasoline cart” of Putilov and Khlobov.

But more often than not, and quite rightly, they begin the history of the automobile at a very early stage, with the appearance of carts driven by the muscles of passengers. Such wagons were built in the 16th-18th centuries in Russia and in other countries.

Automobile predecessors. What did the car get from them?

Wagons of all kinds gave the automobile wheels with axles, springs and brakes. On steam stagecoaches, scooters and bicycles, individually turning front wheels were tried. There were also applied:

differential - a mechanism that allowed the rotation of wheels mounted on the same axle at different speeds;
chain transmission;
solid rubber and even air-filled tires.

The articulated control system, conceived for horse-drawn and steam-powered vehicles, was also adapted to the automobile.

From metal-cutting machines, the car received a gearbox.

Even the ships and those invested their mite in the design of the car: the universal joint, used for a long time to install the compass, moved from the ships to the car. Finally, an engine appeared, created at first not for a car, but for mining, pumps, factory power plants.

Among the predecessors of the car, we see various cars, including self-propelled carts: steam stagecoaches, scooters, bicycles. But we don't usually call them cars. The real mass-produced trackless self-propelled vehicle, which we now call a car, became possible only as a result of the development of an industry capable of producing complex mechanisms in large quantities, and with the presence of a light, economical, always ready for action powerful engine. Such an engine over the past decades, no doubt, is the internal combustion engine. It is not for nothing that millions of cars are equipped with gasoline and diesel engines, while steam and electricity are used as a driving force for cars so far only on a few thousand cars. Therefore, the statements of some historians that if Ford had at one time been engaged in steam cars, then maybe all cars would now be steam, are completely absurd.

Perhaps someday mass cars will move using the energy of splitting atoms or the energy of high-frequency currents transmitted over a distance. Let's not lose sight of these prospects. But the modern car and the car of the near future are inextricably linked with an internal combustion engine running on liquid or gaseous fuels.

The very first steam powered cars

Ferdinand Verbiest, a member of the Jesuit community in China, built the first steam powered car around 1672 as a toy for the Chinese emperor. The car was small and could not carry a driver or passenger, but it may have been the first working steam transport.

In 1770 and 1771 Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot demonstrated his experimental steam powered artillery tractor. fardier and vapeur(steam cart). Such a car could reach speeds of up to four and a half kilometers per hour on the road, but it only had enough water and steam for only twelve minutes of movement.

To ensure the movement of the car, it was necessary to fill the boiler with water and light a fire under it, since it did not have its own firebox. The engineer carried out the order of the French military, namely the Minister of War Etienne Francois. During the tests, there were several accidents, and the project was closed. The first car had significant drawbacks - an inefficient braking system, the need for frequent stops to ignite the furnace, and a rapid drop in pressure in the boiler.

Photo. "Small Cugno Cart" - a prototype of a modern car

Rice. First amphibious vehicle

The first cars with an internal combustion engine

Rice. E. Lenoir - the inventor of the internal combustion engine

Photo. The first production cars "Daimler"

The first car in Russia

Photo. The first Russian car of Frese and Co.

Photo. Presentation of the first domestic car Frese and Co. in Nizhny Novgorod

The first electric vehicles

The electric car appeared before the internal combustion engine. The first electric car in the form of a cart with an electric motor was created in 1841.

In 1899, in St. Petersburg, a Russian nobleman and engineer-inventor, Ippolit Romanov, created the first Russian electric omnibus for 17 passengers. Its general layout was borrowed from English cabs, where the driver was located on high goats behind the passengers. The crew was double and four-wheeled, the front wheels were larger in diameter than the rear ones. The first electric car used a lead battery of the Bari system, which had 36 cans (voltaic poles). He required recharging every 60 miles (~ 64 kilometers). The total power of the car was 4 horsepower. The development of the crew was borrowed from the models of the American company Morris-Salom, which has been producing cars since 1898. The electric car changed the speed in nine gradations from 1.6 to 37.4 km/h. Romanov also developed a map of urban routes for these progenitors of modern trolleybuses and received a work permit. However, he could not find the necessary investments, so the business did not develop.

On April 29 or May 1, 1899, a special bullet-body electric car La Jamais Contente, driven by racing driver Camille Genazzi, was the first to break the 100-kilometer (62 mph) speed barrier on land. The official speed record was 105.882 km/h. Later, the famous American electric car designer Walter Baker reached a speed of 130 km/h. The record for longest range on a single charge was set by an electric car from Borland Electric, which traveled 103.8 miles (167 km) from Chicago to Milwaukee. The next day (after recharging), the electric car returned to Chicago under its own power. The average speed was 55 km/h.

The first mechanism underlying modern machines is the wheel. It was invented on the territory of modern Romania more than 5 thousand years ago, spread throughout Europe and around the world. Now wheels are used for all mobile machines.

Using wheels, man invented a wheelbarrow for transporting stones and earth. Having improved the wheelbarrow, he installed it on two wheels. The first prototype of the current machines was a cart with four wheels. At first, it was powered by the muscular strength of people. Then animals began to be used as traction.

Residents of various countries have adapted animals that historically live in this territory for harness in carts. Horses, mules, oxen, donkeys have become such a traction force in different regions of the planet Earth.

In 1817, the German professor Baron Karl von Drez from the city of Karlsruhe created a model of the first scooter with a steering wheel. Further improvement allowed a person to move around with the help of pedals, which he twisted with his feet. Four-wheeled carts, driven by pedals, began to appear everywhere.

Steam powered car

A great impetus to technical development was brought by the use of a steam power plant as part of a mobile vehicle. The first steam powered car was built by Ferdinand Verbst. The car was small, the emperor of China played with it. The steam car at first did not receive proper distribution. In 1680, Isaac Newton described in detail a carriage propelled by steam.

The blacksmith from England Thomas Newcomen in 1712 for the first time demonstrated to the public an atmospheric engine of his own invention. His steam engines began to spread throughout England. By 1735, there were more than a hundred of them throughout the country.

A full-size steam engine was patented in 1770 by French inventor Nicola Joseph Cugno. She served to transport artillery pieces.

The most important moment in the history of the world development of automotive technology came when the internal combustion engine was invented. In 1799, the Frenchman F. Lebon discovered lighting gas - a mixture consisting of several gases:

methane;
carbon monoxide;
hydrogen and others.

At first it was used for lighting. In 1801, Le Bon received a patent for a gas engine, consisting of a combustion chamber and two pressure compressors. Further, everything developed incrementally. In 1804, the Belgian Jean Etienne Lenoir proposed using electric ignition in cylinders to ignite a combustible mixture.

Such an engine was patented in 1859. In total, several hundred of these motors were produced. The German engineer August Otto went even further. In 1864, he received a patent for his own model of a gas engine with an efficiency of 15%. His firm "Otto and Company" produced about 5,000 motors. In the same period, a four-stroke engine appeared.

By 1897, 42,000 light gas motors had been produced. The rapid development of engines pushed scientists around the world to search for efficient fuel. The American Brighton was the first to develop in 1872 an evaporative carburetor and used gasoline as fuel for an internal combustion engine.

In 1883, talented German engineers Gottlieb Daimler and his friend Wilhelm Maybach created a gasoline engine. For all technical specifications the power unit was suitable for installation and effective use as part of a car.

The Hungarian designer Donat Banki managed to finally improve the motor in 1893. He introduced a simple but reliable power supply system into the design. Banks invented the carburetor, which is still used today. Gasoline was sprayed over all cylinders, a jet system appeared, the fuel mixture began to be sucked through the carburetor.

First car production

Scientists still continue scientific disputes about who invented the car. The car was the fruit of a joint historical search for scientists over three centuries of a convenient vehicle for all mankind. The first person to build a car was an engineer from Austria, Siegfried Markus.

Conducting his experiments on creating a combustible mixture of gasoline with air, he kindled a candle. The mixture ignited and an explosion occurred. Marcus drew conclusions, and in early 1864, his engine was installed on a three-wheeled wagon. The car became the first car in history.

But the laurels of superiority received other inventors. Official sources informed the whole world in 1885 about the creation of the first car with a gasoline engine. Its creator was a talented German designer, an outstanding engineer Karl Benz. A year later, he received a patent for his own innovative invention.

The patent was accompanied by permission to start mass production of cars. The German inventor created a prototype machine, set up production and became a great entrepreneur of the 19th century. His plant became the first enterprise for the serial production of long-awaited cars for Germany, Europe and the whole world.

Since then, people have ceased to perceive the car as a toy. The car has become a complete means of transportation.

1989 was marked by the opening of a new car factory - the French Pahnar et Levassor. In 1991, another French company appeared - Peugeot. Europe has become the center of the automotive industry for the whole world. At the same time, other automobile companies in Europe, America, Germany and many other countries, known to this day, began to open.

Bronze Age Cars

The Bronze Age for automobiles began in 1905. This historical period received this name because the body parts of cars of that time were stamped from sheet bronze. Bronze cars were already not some kind of curiosity or a toy for most users. The car has become a necessity for moving, working, traveling, transporting goods.

Mass production of machines of various classes, designs, and configurations began all over the world. In parallel with the development of the automotive industry, other related industries gained power. During this 10-year period, rapidly developed:

tire production;
metallurgy;
glass production;
production of seals, seals, cuffs;
chemical sphere;
production of foam rubber, leather substitute, cardboard;
increased production of motor oils, liquids, paints, enamels;
production of batteries, electrical equipment.

Good roads, bridges, interchanges are necessary for the movement of cars. In large metropolitan areas and large settlements, grandiose construction of these facilities began, new highways, highways, asphalt roads arose.

With the introduction of rules traffic began to organize courses and schools for teaching driving, handling equipment, rules for driving on roads.

vintage era cars

Since 1919, the vintage era of the automotive industry has begun. Prior to this, the engine was located in cars in the rear compartment. This made it difficult to cool the power unit. The designers introduced the front engine and the presence of a water radiator in front of it. By counterflows of air, the radiator now intensively cooled the working fluid, which circulated through it into the internal combustion engine.

Heat was constantly removed from the power unit, protecting the installation from overheating. If the first cars of the Bronze Age were made with an open top, then for cars of the vintage era they began to make closed bodies with glass windows. Subsequently, a special automobile window lifter was invented. Thanks to this mechanism, it became possible to open the windows in the car to any size.

Automobile companies of all countries began to standardize the management of cars. Bearings, fasteners - bolts, nuts, washers were standardized. The unification of the main components, parts, components was carried out at a wide pace. For the purpose of interchangeability, design documentation was created, large factories exchanged drawings among themselves and helped smaller enterprises in terms of standardization and unification of products.

The period of the vintage era was marked the following inventions, which began to play a key role in the design of vehicles:

hydraulic braking system;
front-wheel drive;
system management;
internal combustion engines with multiple valves - up to 16;
overhead camshaft;
automatic transmission;
two-speed gearbox.

The era of vintage cars lasted 10 years, from 1919 to 1929, and became a definite breakthrough in the evolution of world engineering.

pre-war era

After the vintage era in the automotive industry, the pre-war era began. Before the Second World War, mechanical engineering and automobile production in the advanced countries developed at a rapid pace. Annually there was an increase in output. More than 4 million cars were produced in the world annually. The main world leader in this industrial race was the United States.

American automobile corporations located in Chicago, Detroit produced colossal volumes of products.

In the period of the 30s of the last century, the “big three” of automotive giants formed in the United States, consisting of industrial engineering concerns - General Motors, Ford, Chrysler. These corporations play a key role in the production of automobiles today.

Before the war, the US automobile industry produced 83% of the entire world car market. Western European manufacturers accounted for 14% of the total turnover of vehicles. This race of technical monsters of the planet was crossed out by the Second World War. The automotive industry has been thrown far back. During the war years, new tasks appeared that needed to be addressed in the first place.

After the end of World War II, the layouts in automotive engineering changed. Germany has become one of the most key players in the market for the production and sale of vehicles. The "German miracle", which was implemented with the help of American sponsors, allowed the devastated country to become the most technically developed country in Europe in 10 post-war years.

Japan has joined the world market of countries with developed automotive industry. In the Land of the Rising Sun, machine-building corporations began to be built at a rapid pace, which in a short time mastered the production of the world's best models of motor vehicles: Toyota, Mitsubishi, Mazda, Nissan, Honda, Suzuki, Subaru.

European manufacturers have managed to increase their share in the global volume of car production to 46%, the Japanese have mastered about 13% of the total market, the United States has slowed down to 32%.

In the post-war period, new large car factories were built in France, the Netherlands, Italy, and Sweden. World production of automotive technology began to develop even faster than before the war.

The current global automotive production is measured in millions of units. In addition to traditional market participants - the USA, Canada, Germany, France, Japan, Sweden - many world states are honorary members of the automakers club. Own cars are produced by: Korea, Australia, Brazil, India.

China has organized a huge car market in our time. Manufacturers from the Celestial Empire have become virtuosos in the design, manufacture and implementation of both models of their own design, and any European, American ones under licenses at their car assembly plants. Russia is also the largest player in the global automotive market.

Worldwide car production for 2008 is shown in the table below

In total, there are 20 major automobile factories in our country that produce cars of their own design. In addition, another 20 assembly plants produce foreign cars under foreign licenses. All enterprises are certified in the global ISO:9001 certification system and meet the highest quality standards.

A modern car for a person of the era of the beginning of the birth of machines is a technical tool akin to an airplane or a spacecraft. Once upon a time, the great master of brush and technical thought Leonardo da Vinci created cars of the future on his canvases. But even a great master could not foresee such a degree of perfection.

The modern car is the pinnacle of technical thought. This is a real robotic complex. The current car can develop tremendous speed - up to 500 km / h. Parking sensors allow you to position the vehicle in the tightest spaces. Satellite navigation systems guide drivers even in the most inaccessible places.

The machines are equipped with sophisticated electronics that allow you to warm up the engine at a distance and start it in any frost. Smart nodes, like a differential, distribute loads in an optimal way, allowing you to fit into turns and get out of difficult road conditions. On-board computers now control all the life support systems of cars, prompting drivers to get out of critical situations.

The future of the car

High technologies, modern materials, fresh technical ideas contribute to the further development of the car. The car will be developed as a vehicle with good overview, great design, modern ergonomic characteristics. Significant attention of designers and designers will be paid to creating coziness and internal comfort for the driver and passengers.

Since the car is a high-speed object, the absolute safety of the driver and passengers is put in the first place. The existing ones will be used and improved, as well as new means will be created to protect a person at the time of an accident:

protective belts;
soft materials for the steering wheel and column;
special glasses that do not allow injury;
sinking sharp interior details;
perfect airbags.

Now in the global automotive industry, cars without a driver are being widely developed and are already in operation. The vehicle is fully controlled by a robotic complex and an embedded computer brain. Perhaps in the near future all our roads will look like this. A person will only reap the benefits of high technological processes, and the machines will work.

January 29 is celebrated as the birthday of the car. On this day in 1886 Karl Benz's Motorwagen received a German Imperial patent.
But the history of the creation of the car goes back several centuries.
The first known drawings of a car (with a spring drive) belong to Leonardo da Vinci, but neither a valid copy nor information about its existence has survived to this day. In 2004, experts from the Museum of the History of Science in Florence were able to restore this car according to the drawings, thereby proving the correctness of Leonardo's idea. During the Renaissance and later in a number of European countries, "self-propelled" carts and carriages with a spring engine were built in single quantities to participate in masquerades and parades.

In Russia in the 1780s, the famous Russian inventor Ivan Kulibin worked on a car project. In 1791, he made a scooter cart, in which he used a flywheel, a brake, a gearbox, rolling bearings, etc.

In 1769, the French inventor Cugnot tested the first example of a steam-powered machine, known as the "small Cugnot cart", and in 1770 - the "big Cugnot cart". The inventor himself called it the "Fire Cart" - it was intended for towing artillery pieces.

The Cugno cart is considered the forerunner of not only the car, but also the steam locomotive, since it was driven by steam power. In the 19th century, steam-powered stagecoaches and rutiers (steam tractors, that is, trackless locomotives) for ordinary roads were built in England, France and used in a number of European countries, including Russia, but they were heavy, voracious and uncomfortable, so they were not widely used .

There have been isolated instances of building passenger cars as luxury items. So, La Marquise (official name - De Dion-Bouton et Trepardoux), built in 1884 and powered by steam, entered history.

The appearance of a light, compact and sufficiently powerful internal combustion engine opened up wide opportunities for the development of the car. In 1885, the German inventor G. Daimler, and in 1886 his compatriot K. Benz manufactured and patented the first self-propelled carriages with gasoline engines. In 1895, K. Benz manufactured the first bus with an internal combustion engine. In 1896, G. Daimler manufactured the first taxi and truck. In the last decade of the 19th century, the automobile industry was born in Germany, France and England.

Motorwagen Karl Benz

Gottlieb Daimler car

The American inventor and industrialist H. Ford, who made extensive use of the conveyor system for assembling automobiles, made a considerable contribution to the widespread use of automobile transport.

Cars appeared in Russia at the end of the 19th century. (The first foreign car in Russia appeared in 1891. It was brought from France on a steamboat by the publisher and editor of the Odessa Leaf newspaper, V. V. Navrotsky). The first Russian car was created by Yakovlev and Frese in 1896 and shown at the All-Russian Exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod.

In the first quarter of the 20th century, electric cars and cars with a steam engine became widespread. In 1900, about half of the cars in the United States were powered by steam; in the 1910s, up to 70,000 electric cars worked in taxis in New York.

In the same 1900, Ferdinand Porsche designed an electric car with four driving wheels, in which the electric motors that set them in motion were located. Two years later, the Dutch company Spyker released a four-wheel drive racing car equipped with a center differential.

In 1906, a Stanley steam car set a speed record of 203 km/h.

The 1907 model traveled 50 miles on one tank of water. The steam pressure required for movement was reached in 10-15 minutes from the start of the machine. These were the favorite vehicles of the New England police and fire departments. The Stanley brothers produced about 1,000 cars a year. In 1909, the brothers opened the first luxury hotel in Colorado. From the railway station to the hotel, guests were transported by a steam bus, which was the actual beginning of car tourism. Stanley produced steam-powered cars until 1927. Despite a number of advantages (good traction, multi-fuel), steam cars left the scene by the 1930s due to their uneconomical and operational difficulties.

And in 1923, the Benz company manufactured the first truck with a Diesel engine.

Thus, the history of the creation of the car had a rather long development before we were able to get cars in the form in which they are offered to us by the modern car market.