On Wed, 27 Feb 2008 06:57:59 UTC, giveitawhril2008@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:
> A number of sources talk about the French steam powered automobile,
> invented by one Cugnot. Here's the Brittanica entry:
>
>
> http://www.britannica.com/bps/topic/145966/Nicolas-Joseph-Cugnot
Thanks for the reference. I'll look it up sometime when I have the
dead-trees version handy. (It's a subscription-only article.)
>
> It was a three-wheeled wagon designed for hauling artillery. It had to
> stop and start based on the need to build up steam. Various accounts
> that I just now read based on a Google search, "french steam powered
> automobile 1769," say either his patrons died and/or abandoned
> sup****t, or "the money dried up" or the vehicle failed to meet the
> French Army's specifications. I did not readily, on first glance, run
> into technical specifics on the engine.
My curiosity is well piqued. I wonder if it could have been some sort of
Newcomen thing -- hideously clumsy and inefficient -- or maybe a very
early Watt-influenced engine. Certainly one doesn't think Watt was the
only person in the world working on steam.
>
> So, steam power was building up steam by the late 1700s! Too bad it
> wasn't doing so in 200 BC! Columbus could have moved so much faster
> (only to find the Vikings building railroads in North America)! :-)
--
Dan Drake
dd@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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