Water vapor

The first combustion engine – still a finger pointer

After all, you could move at 4 km/h with this thing.

(Bild: stock.adobe.com/Juulijs )

In 1969, humans landed on the moon, traveling at a speed of around 5000 km/h. Exactly 200 years earlier, people traveled much slower, but still for the first time with a technical drive.

The first car in history was driven in 1769. It was called a "fardier de vapeur", which simply means "steam carriage" and not generally "steam carriage", which is often given as a translation. This vehicle, powered by steam, was a truck. But not an ordinary one for any load, but a special vehicle for a single purpose: to transport heavy cannon barrels, as used by the French military for sieges. This special Fardier was invented by artillery officer Nicolas Joseph Cugnot from Lorraine. He came from a farming family and joined the army, where he was trained as an engineer. In 1725, the year of Cugnot's birth, Lorraine was part of the Holy Roman Empire, so it made sense for Cugnot to join the Austrian military.