Travel and Leisure

An automobile or Car is a wheeled vehicle used for conveying or transporting passengers, goods, valuables and so on. Automobiles are primary designed to run on roads, have seats that varies but all has a driver seat, which is one of the constant factors in all vehicles. It also has four wheels. Automobile was derived from Greek word by combining 'auto' meaning self and mobilis meaning a vehicle that moves itself and on its own. The substitute which is 'Car' was originated from the Latin word 'carrus' or 'carrum' meaning wheeled vehicle.

I know what must be running through your mind is who started this invention, automobiles has so many inventors. Although Nicolas Joseph Cugnot is often credited with building the first self propelled automobile in about 1979, though there was a little doubt by some. Among notable early inventors were Ferdinand Verbiest who built the first steam-powered vehicle around 1672, Richard Trevithick in 1801. Francois Isaac de Rivaz, a Swiss inventor, designed the first internal combustion engine in 1806, which was fueled by a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen and used it to develop the world's first vehicle. All this and more had their contribution to the automobile world but Karl Benz generally is acknowledged as the Father of the modern automobile.

An automobile powered by his own four-stroke cycle gasoline engine was built in Mannheim, Germany by Karl Benz in 1885 and granted a patent in January of the following year under the auspices of his major company, Benz & Cie, which was founded in 1883. It was an integral design, without the adaptation of other existing components and including several new technological elements to create a new concept. This is what made it worthy of a patent. Then he was on his way to success in the automobile industry, He began to sell his production vehicles in 1888. In 1879 Benz created his first engine and got a patent for it and his first Motorwagon was built in 1885. During the last years of the nineteenth century, Benz was the largest automobile company. Then came DMG, a Daimler Motor company in Cannstatt founded by Daimler and Maybach in 1890 and under the brand name, DMG sold their first automobile in 1892.

By this time, the tentacles of automobile is spreading fast. So in 1890, Emile Levassor and Armand Peugeot of France began producing vehicles with Daimler engines and so laid the foundation of the automobile industry in France. The first design for an American automobile with a gasoline internal combustion engine was drawn in 1877 by George Selden of Rochester, who applied for a patent for an automobile in 1879, but the patent application expired because the vehicle was never built and proved to work which was a requirement for a patent. Though was later given the patent after delay of sixteen years for a two-stroke automobile engine on November 5 1895, which was was later challenged by Henry Ford and others, and was overturned in 1911. The first production vehicles in Great Britain also came from the Daimler Motor Company.

Now it came to the issue of production. The large scale production of affordable automobiles started with Ransom olds but was greatly expanded by Henry ford. As a result, ford's cars came off the line in fifteen minute intervals, much faster than previous methods. It was so successful and he dominated and spread worldwide seeing the founding of ford in other countries.
Since the 1920s, nearly all cars have been mass-produced to meet market needs, so marketing plans often have heavily influenced automobile design. The Fuel and propulsion technologies of Most automobiles in use today are propelled by gasoline (also known as petrol) or diesel for internal combustion engines, which are known to cause air pollution and are also blamed for contributing to climate change. The main benefit of diesel engines is a 50% fuel burn efficiency compared with 27% in the best gasoline engines. A down-side of the diesel is the presence in the exhaust gases. Gasoline engines have the advantage over diesel in being lighter and able to work at higher rotational speeds and they are the usual choice for fitting in high- performance sports cars. Continuous development of gasoline engines for over a hundred years has produced improvements in efficiency and reduced pollution.

Due to the pollution and climate change caused by gasoline and diesel, Efforts were made to improve or replace existing technologies which resulted into the development of hybrid,electric and hydrogen vehicles which do not release pollution into the air.

Other propulsion technologies used were steam power, usually an oil or gas-heated boiler but had a disadvantage of being unable to power the car until boiler pressure were available that is poor heat efficiency and has an advantage of producing low emissions. Some cars now are electric powered like the 2007 Tesla electric powered roadster. One of the latest in the world of automobile is the use of air as a fuel or propulsion technology. A car will be powered by compressed air. The car can be powered solely by air, or by air combined with gasoline/diesel/ethanol or electric plant. Several prototypes are available already and scheduled for worldwide sale by the end of 2008. Companies releasing this type of car include Tata Motors and Motor Development International. With the spate of technology coming on now and the need to evaluate any fuel or propulsion problem, One day cars might run on water.

The cost and benefits of usage can not be over emphasized which may include the cost of acquiring the vehicle, maintenance, fuel, taxes, insurance and so on are weighed against the cost of the alternatives, and the value of the benefits. Do you think all this cost really weighed the car usage. The ability for humans to move flexibly from place to place has far reaching implications for the nature of societies. Similarly the its effect on society which may include those of maintaining roads, pollution, public health, health care, can be equaled against the value of the benefits to society that automobile use generates. The societal benefits may include: economy benefits, such as job and wealth creation of automobile production and maintenance, transportation provision, society well-being derived from leisure and travel opportunities, and revenue generation from the tax opportunities.

As you can see, automobile industry is one of the best thing to have happened in this world and thanks to some of our inventors. Now we have so many automobile producers like Honda, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Lincoln, Infinty to name a few. Now we have a wide variety of options to choose from because now we have so many models, so many styles and shapes to choose from.