Today in Technology History

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January 29

Records indicate that people have been attaching engines to carriages since at least 1769, when a Frenchman first put an unwieldy steam engine on wheels. But when was the first modern car -- with an internal-combustion engine and a practical size -- invented?

There were a number of advances in engine design and fuel research in the 1860s and 70s. Then, in 1885, a German engineer named Karl Benz built a three-wheeled vehicle with a gasoline-powered internal-combustion engine. He applied for a patent, and on January 29, 1886, received German Patent No. 37435. This is the first patent awarded for a motorcar, and it is sometimes called "the birth certificate of the automobile."

Benz's car, Der Motorwagen, had big wheels that looked like bicycle wheels. The front wheel had a tiller attached for steering. The car could run at about 8 or 9 miles per hour.

Although not an immediate success, the company Benz founded eventually produced many lines of cars and trucks, and in 1926 it merged with its main competitor -- Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft -- to become Daimler-Benz. In 1998, that company merged with Chrysler to form DaimlerChrysler.

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