
The Automobile
One commonly held misconception is that Henry Ford invented the automobile. In reality, the development of the automobile can be traced back to Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot, a French military engineer who, in 1769, built a steam-powered tricycle for hauling artillery. Due to its steam-powered nature, not everyone accepts Cugnot’s invention as the first true auto. Instead, that distinction often goes to vehicles made by two Germans, Karl Friedrich Benz and Gottlieb Daimler, who — working entirely separately — developed their own gasoline-powered automobiles in 1886, in two different German cities. Benz actually drove his three-wheeled vehicle in 1885, and it is regarded as the first practical modern automobile and the first commercially available car in history. As for Henry Ford, his name is forever remembered in auto history for the Model T, which he mass-produced using an innovative moving assembly line, making automobiles available to middle-class Americans.









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