The word ‘automobile’ which is another way of saying motor car, means ‘moving by itself’. The motor car travels without being pulled by a horse or any other animal and with no visible force to make its wheels go round. For a long time inventors and engineers wondered how such a machine could by produced. One of the first attempts to produce an automobile was made during the eighteenth century. It was a very ramshackle affair and can still be seen today in the National Museum in Paris. The machine was designed by the French engineer, Nicholas Joseph Cugnot.

Cugnot’s idea was to exploit the steam engine invented by Watt and use it to power a vehicle. He drew up plans which he submitted to the War Ministry since the machine was meant to carry heavy artillery. Cugnot was authorized to make a prototype. The machine he produced was a large, heavy, steam-powered tricycle. His model of 1769 was said to just over 5 kilometers an hour while carrying four people. Cugnot then built a larger vehicle. During a test run at Vincennes the machine got out of control and crashed into a wall, demolishing it.

The accident gave ammunition to Cugnot’s opponents and the experiments stopped. It took many more years before attempts were resumed to make a motor car.