Inventions that changed the history of the automobile
If we turn back pages in the history books, we find great events, feats and inventions that represented a before and an after. A turning point that, in the past, made it possible to live in a present full of comfort and security.
The human being lives, in these last years, moments that will change history forever.
The arrival of new technologies in the world of communication and security has revolutionised a society that is advancing by leaps and bounds towards a future that, possibly, no one is capable of predicting today.
If we talk about the space we occupy on the website of Muy Interesante, the automotive industry, the advance is not far behind.
The application of these revolutionary novelties means that buying a car of the most accessible brand and the cheapest model, at this moment, is very far, technologically speaking, from what we were able to buy ten years ago in premium cars.
In this gallery, we are going to review the technologies and models that came into the world of the automobile to change it forever.
We will also find failed examples that simply didn't work or didn't convince the general public.
On July 3, 1886, Benz & Co, in the hands of its founder Karl Benz, presented "the motorwagen", the first vehicle powered by a gasoline engine that only had three wheels. The 954cc single cylinder engine reached 18 km/h and had a power of 0.8 hp.
Two years later his wife Bertha made the longest journey to date in an automobile. In August 1888 Bertha, at the expense of her husband, made the journey between Mannheim and Pforzheim. Pforzheim was her hometown.
The Mercedes-Benz 260 D wins the title of the first mass-produced diesel car. With 45 hp, a top speed of 100 km/h and a fuel consumption of 9 litres at 100 km, the car was presented at the 1936 Berlin Motor Show in the fullness of Nazi Germany.
The manufacture did not exceed 2,000 units, perhaps due to its high price which, compared to the Mercedes 200 and although this with a lower battle, exceeded almost 40 percent of the price. A limousine, a four-door sedan, a seven-seater designed for taxis or a two or five-door convertible were the versions available.
In 1886 an English pilot named Laurence Pomeroy designed what we could call the first sports car in history, a title discussed among other manufacturers. Vauxhall Prince Henry, that was the name of this sports car. It was manufactured in 1911 by the company Vauxhall, a factory where the pilot engineer worked.
With a length of 4.05 meters and a weight of 1,250 kilos, popularly known as C-10 had to be modified three times to reach the final unit. He participated in time trial races in honour of Prince Henry of Prussia. After its great success, it was manufactured for sale for three years. The auction house Bonhams won a customer who paid more than 600,000 euros for it.
It didn't take long from the appearance of the first car until engineers tried to move the project to the water, to create a multi-purpose machine capable of moving on both terrains. Although the first inventions date back to 1900, the first car capable of moving on land and sea was born in 1934. The so-called Bauling Land-Wasser-Auto was able to cross the English Channel. A few years later Porsche brought the Jeep Schwimmwagen into the Second World War. Twenty years on, in the sixties, the Amphicar managed to sell more than 4,000 units.The Gibbs Aquada, the Lotus Esprit turbo S1 of James Bond or the Rinspeed Splash were some models that have written new chapters of this history.
In 1973 the AVE Mizar also known as the Ford Pinto Volador became the first car capable of reaching flight. A short and tragic story, as in that same flight and day ended the adventure.
Today, the flying car project is perhaps at the closest moment to becoming a reality in this dream, which has already lasted for decades.
This invention, capable of saving more than a million lives each decade, was born in 1959 by the hand of Nils Bohlin.
Of Swedish nationality and belonging to the Volvo brand, was the first to apply the three-point belt anchorage. But to understand this moment, where some of the best examples of passive safety began, we must go back to the 1930s, when airplanes began to use it.
Subsequently, Ford made the leap to the automobile as a safety option. Subsequently, the evolution of the Swedish engineer was the one that was definitively consecrated, being mounted of series in his models.
Releasing the patent, they were able to quickly globalise the invention, making it mandatory and, although suffering different adaptations with new technologies, maintaining the initial idea of the invention.
A personal experience, or rather, accidental, made the American engineer John Hetrick in the fifties think, and invent the first airbag. But he didn't have much luck with the brands. It is true that the compressed air balloon and its sensors did not achieve the right result. Ford did not take long to realise, and began with the development of the idea.
In 1968, Ford, with the incorporation of Yale University in the United States, developed the so-called Auto-Ceptor. Finally, we obtained the system that is used today and that has been updated years after being patented on October 23, 1971 by Mercedes-Benz. Ten years later, it is installed for the first time in the S-Class W126, a model of the same brand.
If we look back to understand how and when automatic gearboxes were positioned and used, we would not believe how brands and drivers still admire and use them today.
Undoubtedly, they have gone from being considered a tasteless form of driving, to being the most intelligent and efficient option. The contributions both in quality and in driving safety, and even in health, for drivers who spend many hours behind the wheel, make us think that it may become the only option for the not-too-distant future.
That said, it was Thomas J. Sturtevant of Boston who designed the first semi-automatic three-gear transmission in the late 19th century, and in 1940, the Cadillac Oldsmobile developed the first fully automatic transmission which, while not the first to be invented, was the first to be marketed.
