Omaha daily bee., 1920-02-29
FIRST AMERICAN
MOTOR CAR SOLD
IN APRIL 1898.
First Patent Granted In 1874
First Auto Vehicle Made j,
In France In
1869.

sale of a motor vehicle in the United
States will come in April Of this
year. The automobile, which was
conceived in Europe, has found its
greatest development in the United
States. Many of the American
pioneers are still living and reaping
the benefits of their early sacrifices.
Charles E. Duryea, Elwood Haynes,
the Apperson brothers, P. E. Olds,
Alexander Winton and Henry Ford
are today national personages. Their
genius has brought to millions of
their countrymen undreamed-of
pleasures and prosperity.
Fifty years ago the automobile
was the experiment of few intrepid
inventors. 1t was c:assed by the
public with the fancies of Jules
Verne, wonderful, but impractical.
The pioneers did not conceive that
their inventions would grow into
the third greatest manufacturing in
dustry in the country.
Auto Preceded Locomotive.
Surprising as it may seem, the
automobile is the progenitor of the
locomotive. The first automobile
was built and tried 50 years before
the first railroad track was laid.
Capt. Nicholas Joseph Gugnot is
credited with having constructed, in
1869, the first motor-propelled road
vehicle that actually ran. Steam
was the force. This machine was
clumsy, overbalanced and difficult to
steer. 1t was partly wrecked on
one of its trips and never rebuilt.
1t was placed in the Conservatory
of Arts and Trades in Paris, where
it is still an object Of much interest.
Nine Miles An Hour.
In 1887 Oliver Evans of Philadel-
phia built the first American auto
mobile under a patent granted by
the state of Maryland. 1t also was
so awkward and heavy that public
opinion vetoed its praeticability, and
the inventor was, forced to abandon
his further experiments. In 1881
Walter Hancock, an Enghshman,
built steam car that he called the
Infant. This car made regular
trips between London and Stratford,
and in 1882 the distance was extend
ed to Brighton. This vehicle car
ried II passengers and was run at
an average speed of nine miles an
hour.
About 1874 Gottlieb Daimler and
Carl Benz began their basic expert
ments in the field of internal com.
bustion, hydro-carbon motors. On
May 8, 1879, George Baldwin Sell
den of Rochester, N. Y, filed an ap-
plication for patent covering the
use of the gasoline motor as a pro-
pelling force of road vehicle and
upon the vehicle as whole. This
application was the pioneer patent
of the industry. Selden did not
build a car until some years after
his patent was granted. When Carl
Benz of Mannheim, Germany, built
the first internal combustion, hydro
carbon motor-propefled vehicle in
1885, it was not until 1893 that the
automobile practically as it is
known today was launched. Pan
hard & Levassor in that year manu.
featured $50 motors, nearly all of
which were sold.
The Haynes Car.
In America, Charles E. Duryea
and E!wood Haynes were the first
to build gasoline vehicles that would
run. The exact date on which
these respective American pioneers
first ran their cars is not accurately
recorded, but it was some time in
1892. To Alexander Winton goes
the credit of selling the first Ameri-
can automobile. On April 1, 1898,
he sold one-cylinder Winton au-
tomobile to Robert Allison of Port
Carbon, Pa. Allison ran the car for
two years and at Winton's solicita-
ton sold it back in existence.
Were of Crude Type.
All these vehicles were of the
"horseless carriage type. 1t was
not until 1901 or 1902 that the au-
tomobile, based upon the European
Panhard & Levassor type, was in
troduced. The difference between
the European model and the horse
less wagon was that in the former
a central frame to carry the power
plant and act as the keystone of the
car structure was developed. This
idea is basic in modern automobile
manufacturing.
Early English Machines.
The history of the motor truck
antedates the passenger automobile.
Gugnot, in France, Hancock and
Russell in England and Owens in
America designed their self-pro-
PEELED vehicles for commercial pur-
poses. Gugnot's first venture was a
machine to haul heavy artillery,
Hancock's and Russell's machines
were designed as commercial stages,
while Owens experiments aimed at
a practical road wagon. The pas
senger car came as such only after
the pioneer experiments Of Daimler
and Benz in the year 1885.
The possibilities of commercial
izing the automobile were perceived
by many of the American pioneers.
While the exact origin of the COM
mercial car is somewhat obscured.
evidence seems to favor Charles S.
Woods, carriage builder of Chi
cago, as the first manufacturer His
cars run by electricity.
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