1675 constructed steam car of ferdinand verbiest actually drove
This is how it might have looked, the first automobile. the vehicle, designed in 1675, drove itself thanks to steam propulsion. © technical university of ingolstadt
Historical invention put to the test: in 1675, the belgian Jesuit priest constructed the first self-propelled vehicle – a small steam carriage. But whether this vehicle could really have been driven has now been verified by a german research team by reconstructing the vehicle according to historical descriptions. And indeed: the four-wheeled heat engine was able to move forward under its own power, as the tests showed.
The 29. January 1886 is generally regarded as the birth of the automobile. On this day, carl benz received the patent for his vehicle with an internal combustion engine – a vehicle that was to leave its mark on history. But benz was by no means the first inventor of an automobile and thus literally of a vehicle that moves itself (auto) (mobilis). More than a century before, inventors were already experimenting with various steam-powered vehicles.
Glowing coals as "fuel
However, the first designer of such a vehicle was not an engineer or technician, but a belgian Jesuit priest: ferdinand verbiest, a missionary in china, designed a self-propelled vehicle almost 350 years ago and is thus considered the actual inventor of the automobile. The vehicle was powered by a boiler full of glowing coals, whose heat produced steam.
However, it was not possible to ride in the somewhat bizarre-looking vehicle, which was only 60 centimeters long and 30 centimeters wide. But transporting people and loads was not verbiest’s goal either. the jesuit priest wanted to show what technical achievements the west was capable of and prove that the principle of a steam drive works. in 1675 he completed his small four-wheeled vehicle and demonstrated it in peking.
Only the description remained
in europe, however, this achievement remained largely unknown. Of it testifies only a report verbiests, in which he summarized for his order superiors all scientific achievements of the jesuits in china. This book, "astronomia europaea," printed in dillingen at the time, has survived to the present day and contains a relatively accurate, if somewhat cumbersome, description of a small car. An excerpt:
"in its center i placed a basin full of glowing coals and above this container an aeolopile (= steam turbine). To the axle of the front wheels I connected a bronze cogwheel, whose teeth, lying crosswise and horizontally, engaged with another small wheel, which, attached to an axle perpendicular to the horizontal, acted in such a way that when the latter axle turned, the carriage moved," the Jesuit wrote.
to this axle he had added another wheel, which was equipped on the outside with pairs of small tubes. "pressing on them, the wind ejected from a narrow nozzle of the aeolopile turned the whole wheel and at the same time propelled the car, which drove for an hour and more in a rather rapid manner."
Replica of the danger in the field test
the historian gerd treffer from ingolstadt came across this description of the wagon by chance when he was preparing an exhibition about the cemetery of the jesuit missionaries in peking. Hit became curious and wanted to know if verbiest’s little car could really have been driven back then. this verification has now been taken over by thomas suchandt from the technical university of ingolstadt and his students.
the reconstruction team used the descriptions from verbiest’s book to first reconstruct the construction plans and then to rebuild the small automobile. First, they built the model from modern materials to check whether it would move at all. They searched for the right kind of wood, experimented with the right pressure and amount of water. experimentation was the motto. "some parts flew around our ears," says suchandt.
proof is in the pudding: it drove
But finally the replica was ready – and actually drove. This proved that verbiest’s design was already a self-propelled vehicle – an automobil. "the use of water vapor for recoil was already known to the ancient egyptians. "but this heat engine, called aeolipile, was considered a curiosity at the time with no practical use," explains suchandt. "the spectacular thing about verbiest’s development is that the object can move itself."
After the first test with modern materials, the students from Suchandt’s team now want to reconstruct a version of verbiest’s automobile with historical materials.