THE FIRST MOTOR ACCIDENT

    Nicholas Cugnot who created the first car in 1769 made another steam powered engine two years later at the Paris Arsenal, the same place as the first car was made by him. The machine reportedly ran well, even though it ran into a wall, then recording the worlds first motor accident .The first car can still be seen today at the Conservatoire Nationale des Arts et Metiers in Paris.

                                                    Francois Isaac de Rivaz

    Issac de Rivaz , from Switzerland , designed many succesful steam-powered cars towards the late 18th century.  In 1807 he designed an  " internal combustion engine".  The engine was gas powered and used this engine to develop a car, and the occasion was historic.  This was the first car to run on an internal combustion engine.  In subsequent years Rivaz worked on his design, and in 1813 developed a 6 meter long car weighing almost a ton!

                                                   Jean etienne Lenoir

    The early19th century saw many different designs of the internal combustion engine (including thatof de Rivaz, who also built a car based o his engine). However, none of these early desings showed any comercial success.  The first successful internal combustion engine was a two-stroke gas driven engine patented by Jean Joseph Etinne Lenoir of Belgium in 1860.  In 1862 he built an experimental vehicle driven by his gas-engine, which managed to reach a speed of 3 KPH. By 1865 around 500 of these engines were in use in Paris alone.

                                                       RED FLAG ACT

    Progress in the developement of cars saw stiff opposition from companies running horse drawn coaches.  In the mid 1800's turnpike charges (similar to toll charges) for the first that which were then plying on the road , were steeply hiked.  These heavy and cruedly built steam-driven vehicles must have badly damaged roads, and to some extent the increase was possibly justified.  The "locomotives on highways act" (Red Flag Act) was passed by the British Government in 1865.  It was intended to regulate the use of heavy traction engines pulling large loads.  The act limited speeds to 6.4 KPH in the country and 3.2 in towns.  It also required that every that every road locomotive must have three atendants: one to steer, one to stoke, and one two go 50 meters ahead holding a red flag signaling when to stop.  The Red Flag Act discouraged further developments of road-steam vehicles.  A subsequent law passed later in 1878 did away with the Red Flag Act, but nevertheless the vehicle still had to be preceded by a man on foot to warn the drivers of horse -driven coaches.

                                           NIKOLAUS AUGUST OTTO

    The first practical "four-stroke" engine was created by the Otto and Langen Company of Deutz, Germany.  Nikolaus Otto was a salesman with a grocer when he read of Lenior's tho-stroke gas-driveninternal combustion engine.  Otto started a workshop in Deutz near Cologne, supported by Langen in 1863.  He had a model engine built and improved upon the gas engine, making it a practical power ource.  The four-stoke Otto aand Langen.  It was, however, a German engineer named Gottlieb Daimler, who , carried out much of the development work on the engine.  Daimer was at the time employed with Otto and Langen, and a substantial credit ,for the success is due to him.