automotive

History of vehicles

• The oldest boats to be found by archaeological excavation are logboats from around 7,000–9,000 years ago,^[3][4][5][6]
• a 7,000 year-old seagoing boat made from reeds and tar has been found in Kuwait.^[7]
• Boats were used between 4000BCE-3000BCE in Sumer,^[8] ancient Egypt^[9] and in the Indian Ocean.^[8]
• There is evidence of camel pulled wheeled vehicles about 3000–4000 BCE.^[10]
• The earliest evidence of a wagonway, a predecessor of the railway, found so far was the 6 to 8.5 km long Diolkos wagonway, which transported boats across the Isthmus of Corinth in Greece since around 600 BC.^{[11][12][13][14][15]} Wheeled vehicles pulled by men and animals ran in grooves in limestone, which provided the track element, preventing the wagons from leaving the intended route.^[15]

• Railways began reappearing in Europe after the Dark Ages. The earliest known record of a railway in Europe from this period is a stained-glass window in the Minster of Freiburg im Breisgau dating from around 1350.^[16]

• In 1515, Cardinal Matthäus Lang wrote a description of the Reisszug, a funicular railway at the Hohensalzburg Castle in Austria. The line originally used wooden rails and a hemp haulage rope, and was operated by human or animal power, through a treadwheel.^[17][18]

• 1769 Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot is often credited with building the first self-propelled mechanical vehicle or automobile in about 1769, by adapting an existing horse-drawn vehicle, this claim is disputed by some^{[citation needed]}, who doubt Cugnot's three-wheeler ever ran or was stable.

• In Russia, in the 1780s, Ivan Kulibin developed a human-pedalled, three-wheeled carriage with modern features such as a flywheel, brake, gear box, and bearings; however, it was not developed further.^[19]

• 1783 Montgolfier brothers first Balloon vehicle

• 1801 Richard Trevithick built and demonstrated his Puffing Devil road locomotive, believed by many to be the first demonstration of a steam-powered road vehicle, although it was unable to maintain sufficient steam pressure for long periods, and would have been of little practical use.

• 1817 push bikes draisines, or hobby horses were the first human means of transport to make use of the two-wheeler principle, the draisine (or Laufmaschine, "running machine"), invented by the German Baron Karl von Drais, is regarded as the forerunner of the modern bicycle (and motorcycle). It was introduced by Drais to the public in Mannheim in summer 1817.^[20]

• 1885 Otto Lilienthal began experimental gliding, and achieved the first sustained, controlled, reproducible flights.

• 1903 Wright brothers flew the first controlled, powered aircraft

• 1907 First helicopters Gyroplane no.1 (tethered) and Cornu helicopter (free flight)^[21]

• 1928 Opel RAK.1 rocket car

• 1929 Opel RAK.1 rocket glider

• 1961 Vostok vehicle carried first man (Yuri Gagarin) into space

• 1969 Apollo Program first manned vehicle lands on the moon

[edit] Power source

Vehicles may be powered by fuels, such as petroleum or diesel, nuclear power, wind, waves, batteries, electrical power, solar energy, gravity, human or animal power and other chemical reactions and physical sources of energy have seen some use.

[edit] Motors

The power is converted into some kind of motion by a "motor". Engines commonly include steam engines, internal combustion engines (including jet engines and gas turbines) or electric motors. Muscles perform this function in animals. Other schemes are sometimes used.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Movement

Vehicles use different means to permit or ease movement. These are commonly in the form of wheels, boat or submarine hulls, skis, caterpillar tracks, skates, wings, rotors or cushions of air or jets of air. Lighter than air lifting and rocket power have also been used. Trains use tracks, either with wheels resting on them, or in a few cases using magnetic levitation. Cable cars are suspended from cables which move. Legs are used on experimental mechanical systems.^{[citation needed]}
One of the studies of vehicle movement is vehicle dynamics. In terms of dynamics, some vehicles such as bicycles and motorcycles leave essentially a single track and are unstable at rest.

[edit] Steering

Main article: steering

Steering is the term applied to the collection of components, linkages, etc. which will allow for a vessel (ship, boat) or vehicle (car, motorcycle) to follow the desired course. An exception is the case of rail transport by which rail tracks combined together with railroad switches (and also known as 'points' in British English) provide the steering function.