The History of Automobile

Nicolas Cugnot was the inventor of the first automobile. His full name was Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot. He was born in Poid, Meuse, Lorraine, on 25 september 1725. He trained as a military engineer. He experimented on working models of steam engine powered vehicles for the French Army, in 1765. Year by year, he improved his invention. In 1770, he invented an improved version, which was able to pull a mass of 4 tonnes and travel at a speed of 4 km/h. The vehicle had two wheels at the back and one wheel in front. In 1771, his vehicle crashed into a brick wall, which was then known as the first automobile accident in the world. In 1772, King Louis XV granted Cugnot a pension of 600 francs a year for his innovative work. With the French Revolution, Cugnot's pension was withdrawn in 1789. He went into exile in Brussels, where he lived in poverty. Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot died in Paris, on 2 October 1809. Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot's 1770 machine is preserved in Paris' Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers.

*On the Wheels ®*