Figure 1 Leonardo da Vinci’s design for a clockwork car.
The idea of an automobile (the word means ‘selfpropelling’) goes back at least to 1495, when artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci drew a design for a clockwork car (Figure 1). As far as we know, Leonardo never made the car, but you can see a reconstruction, based on his drawings, on Youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2qeZrejZp0.
In 1768, French engineer Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot (1725–1804) commissioned the first automobile to be built. The three-wheeled vehicle (Figure 2) was driven by a steam engine. It could travel at 2.5 mph, and had to stop every 15 minutes or so to build up steam pressure.
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