subject: The History Of Cars [print this page] Cars are an essential part of day to day life for the majority of people. Having your own mode of transport that makes getting from A to B a much simpler task than having to get public transport is an option many choose. Also being reliant upon your own time keeping skills rather than those of trains and buses that are often late is not an ideal situation to be stuck in. However back in the day when cars were not invented times were very different, but so were jobs, shops and everything else that the modern world forgot once was not here.
The first full scale automobile was designed and made in 1769 by Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot, where he designed and made a steam powered tricycle. He hit problems with this though as it was difficult to maintain the pressure and the water supply. It was many years later before there was a new invention by Richard Trevithick in 1801 who built the "puffing devil" locomotive, it also had problems with maintaining the steam however. From these early days it took many years for a new inventor to design something else and then somebody else would come up with another idea, totally different to todays world where we have new cars being built every year and more.
Before the designs of automobiles the modes of transport were commonly horse and cart, or for long distances trains were used. In todays world in would be unimaginable having to get into your cart and let the horse take you to the shopping centre! It is easy to not appreciate having a different kind of horse power to what was once available. The amount of roads that are all over the country and world today did not exist back then, it would be hard to imagine what countries would look like without these roads today. It is estimated that in 2010 the number of cars reached over 1 billion vehicles and this number is increasing rapidly day by day, especially in China and India.
The USA, Italy, Monaco and Australia have some of the highest numbers of cars per 1000. With new makes and models being released regularly it can be hard for some people to resist buying a new car too meaning car garages will never be out of business. Life without a car or being able to drive can prove difficult especially with the amount of people who have to commute to work today. It is great to be able to have the freedom of transporting yourself, but is interesting to look back at the history of how it all started.
