History of the Car

Before entering car production in 1876, the Peugeot family, who had a big part in the history of the car, still controlled the independent French motor manufacturer.

They started out as ironmongers, making umbrella frames, coffee grinders and Peugeot racing bicycles - which are still one of the best bicycles available in the world today.

Around the world people began to recognize the quality of their saws, springs, pepper grinders and bicycles bearing the stamp of the Lion.

They also made corsets which gave ladies the familiar but very uncomfortable hour-glass figure of the period.

It was in 1858 that the Lion, which comes from the arms of Franche-Comté, where the company began, became the Peugeot company symbol. It was designed by Justin Blazer, a Montbeliard gold engraver and it symbolized "durability,suppleness and quickness of steel". The lion also stood for the speed and aggressiveness of the Peugeot company. For more information on History of the Peugeot Logo, go to Peugeot Logo History

A big part of the history of the car began when the demand for economical cars began to spread and a strong requirement for industrial production was rapidly growing. Gasoline run cars started to outsell all other types of automobiles in the early 1900s. The very first car manufacturers in the world were French, Panhard & Levassor who completed an automobile in 1889 and Peugeot who completed one in 1891.

The term car manufacturer refers to individuals who built entire motor vehicles for sale and not just engine inventors who experimented with car design to test the engines they built - Daimler and Benz began as engine inventors before becoming full car manufacturers and started out by licensing their patents and selling their engines to car manufacturers.

Peugeot produced a steam driven three wheeler in 1889 in conjunction with LTon Serpollet, which had a tubular frame and a flash boiler, but steam was soon dropped in favor of Daimlers (who in his early engineering career, became convinced steam engines were an outdated form of power, so he started building experimental gas engines) V-twin engines which were installed on the frame along with handlebar steering.

It was in 1890 the history of the car saw Peugeot's first car produced by the two giants of the Automobile Age - Armand Peugeot who built the body and Gottlieb Daimler who was an engine inventor.

In 1891, the first ever journey by a petrol-driven car took place when a Peugeot was driven from Beaulieu-Valentigney to Paris, then on to Brest. This was a remarkable accomplishment at the time and the Peugeots found there was substantial demand for their cars, rising from five sold in 1891, to about 72 sold in 1895 and an unbelievable 300 automobiles sold in 1899.

Peugeot adopted the internal combustion engine and built a gasoline quadricycle driven by a Daimler motor. Within two years the 'Vis-a-Vis' is appearing in Peugeot catalogs beside coffee grinders and corset stays.

History of the car made a dramatic change when electric ignition and a steering wheel in place of a tiller where introduced about 1900.

The German automotive pioneer Gottlieb Daimler who was born in Schorndorf Germany in 1834 had a lot to do with the history of the car. He was the man who was widely credited with pioneering the modern automobile industry.

After training as a gunsmith Daimler became an engineer. Early in his engineering career, he became convinced steam engines were an outdated form of power, and he started building experimental gas engines.

He was a workaholic and a relentless perfectionist who expected nothing less of the people that worked with him. He wasn't an easy person to get along with, and he left many engineering firms because they did not share his vision or his work ethic.

At one of them he met Wilhelm Maybach, a man who understood him. Maybach became an inseparable friend and an engineering partner.

Daimler is known as the pioneer of the modern internal combustion engine. Although Daimler did not invent the internal combustion engine, he did improve it and him and his partner Wilhelm Maybach made engines small, lightweight and fast-running, which played a large part in the history of the car by mading the automobile revolution possible. Daimler was instrumental in founding auto industries in Germany, France and England.

In Cannstatt, he and Maybach patented their four-stroke engine in 1885. That same year, they created what was probably the world's first motorcycle by mating a Daimler engine to a bicycle. They built the first motor truck in 1896. Daimler's truck had a four-horsepower engine and a belt drive with two forward speeds and one reverse. It was the first truck.

In 1889 Daimler and Maybach placed their engine into a horse carriage and drove the car at speeds of 11 miles per hour. They had therefore produced the first four-wheeled automobile. And in 1897 he built the first taxi.

In 1889 history of the car took another very important step when they made their first purpose-built automobile and founded Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft. Ten years later, Maybach designed the first car named Mercedes, which was named after the Austrian businessman, Emil Jellinek's daughter.

In 1890 The Daimler Motor Company was launched and the company soon developed a reputation for reliability. In 1894 the history of the car took yet another large step when the first car trials were held for vehicles without horses. This event ran between Paris and Rouen and only 15 of the 102 cars completed the course. Incredibly all 15 cars were powered by Daimler engines! For more information on the first csr trials please see the First Car Race

This impressed Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin, who decided to use Daimler engines in the airships he was building. Daimler engines were also used in the armored cars that were being developed during this period. Gottlieb Daimler died in 1900 but Wilhelm Maybach continued to develop the Mercedes car and the Zeppelin Airship.

Two other very important individuals who were involved in the hisrtory of the car are Rene Panhard and Emile Levassor who worked together in a wood working machinery business when they decided to become car manufacturers. In 1890 they built their first car using a Daimler engine which was commissioned by Edouard Sarazin who held the licensing rights to the Daimler patent for France. They not only manufactured cars, they improved the automotive body design.

Panhard-Levassor made vehicles with a pedal-operated clutch, a chain transmission leading to a change-speed gearbox, and a front radiator. The history of the car moved forward again when Levassor became the first designer to move the engine to the front of the car and use a rear-wheel drive layout. This design was known as the Systeme Panhard and quickly became the standard for all cars because it gave a better balance and improved steering. Panhard and Levassor are also credited with the invention of the modern transmission - installed in their 1895 Panhard.

Panhard and Levassor also shared the licensing rights to Daimler motors with Armand Peugeot.

Unfortunately, in 1897 during the Paris to Marseille race Emile Levassor was in a fatal auto accident where he was killed.

Initially, French manufacturers did not standardize car models, each car was different from the other. The first standardized car was the 1894 Benz Velo. One hundred and thirty four identical Velos were manufactured in 1895.

The Duryea brothers, Charles and Frank played a large role in the history of the car. They built America's first gasoline powered commercial car manufacturers. The bicycle makers built their first motor vehicle in 1893 in Springfield Massachusetts.

By 1896, the Duryea Motor Wagon Company had sold thirteen models of the Duryea, an expensive limousine, which remained in production into the 1920s.

The American car manufacturer Ransome Eli Olds also played a large part in the history of the car. In 1901 his Curved Dash Oldsmobile was the first automobile to be mass produced in the United States.

It was Olds who invented the basic concept of the assembly line and started the Detroit area automobile industry. He first began making steam and gasoline engines with his father, Pliny Fisk Olds, in Lansing, Michigan in 1885. Olds designed his first steam-powered car in 1887. In 1899, with a growing experience of gasoline engines, Olds moved to Detroit to start the Olds Motor Works, and produce low-priced cars. He produced 425 "Curved Dash Olds" in 1901, and was America's leading auto manufacturer from 1901 to 1904.

One of the better known contributors to the history of the car is Henry Ford who made his first car called the "Quadricycle" in June 1896. However, success didn't come until after he formed the Ford Motor Company in 1903.

The American car manufacture improved on the 'assembly line' and installed the first conveyor belt-based assembly line in his car factory in Highland Park in his Michigan plant around 1913-14. The assembly line reduced production costs for cars by reducing the assembly time.

He introduced the successful Model T which was assembled in ninety-three minutes in 1908. After installing the moving assembly lines in his factory in 1913, Ford became the world's biggest car manufacturer. By 1927, 15 million Model Ts had been manufactured.