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Karl Benz and Nicolaus Otto
Benz, Karl (1844 — 1929) was a German inventor of the automobile, who devoted his life to making a horseless vehicle. When Benz's three-wheeled engine-driven machine (the first "car") appeared on I lie streets in 1885, people couldn't believe that it moved without the aid of horses. It was a great triumph to him because Benz built a new engine that was lighter and more powerful than any other. He put it onto a chassis and got power from the engine to the wheels. Benz's first car was a great achievement for him. Everything — the engine, fuel transmission, controls — had been developed and designed by him. The wheels were driven by means of a chain, and there were two speeds.
In his early days the speed limits were 12 kilometers an hour outside the city, six - inside. Benz realized that he would never be able to improve his cars if this rule were not changed. He thought up a plan. He invited the Minister to ride in his car and agreed with a milkman that the latter would wait with his horse for them on a certain place. When Benz, with the Minister in his car, passed the milkman, the latter started off, passed the car at a good speed and laughed at them. The plan worked perfectly. The Minister ordered to go faster. But Benz referred to speed limit. "Never mind", said the Minister. Thus Benz won the day.
Nicolaus Otto (June 14, 1832 – January 26, 1891) – one of the most important landmarks in engine design comes from Nicolaus Otto who in 1876 invented an effective gas motor engine—the first practical alternative to the steam engine. Otto built the first practical four-stroke internal combustion engine called the "Otto Cycle Engine," and when he completed his engine, he built it into a motorcycle.
In May 1876, Nicolaus Otto built the first practical four-stroke piston cycle internal combustion engine. He continued to develop his four-stroke engine after 1876 and he considered his work finished after his invention of the first magneto ignition system for low voltage ignition in 1884. Otto's patent was overturned in 1886 in favor of the patent granted to Alphonse Beau de Roaches for his four-stroke engine. However, Otto built a working engine while Roaches' design stayed on paper. On October 23, 1877, another patent for a gas motor engine was issued to Nicolaus Otto, and Francis and William Crossley.
In all, Otto built the following engines:
• 1861 A copy of Lenoir's atmospheric engine
• 1862 A four-cycle compressed charge engine (prior to Rochas's patent) which failed as it broke almost immediately
• 1864 The first successful atmospheric engine
• 1876 The four-stroke compressed charge engine which is acknowledged as the "Otto" cycle engine. The term Otto cycle is applied to all compressed charge, four cycle engines.
Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot
Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot (26 February 1725 – 2 October 1804) was a French inventor. He is believed to have built the first self-propelled mechanical vehicle.
French military engineer designed and built the world's first true automobile, a huge, heavy, steam-powered tricycle.
After serving in the Austro-Hungarian army in the Seven Years' War, Cugnot returned to Paris in 1763 to devote his time to writing military treatises and tinkering with a number of inventions he had conceived while campaigning.
He built two steam-propelled tractors for hauling artillery, the first in 1769, the second in 1770. The second alone survived and is preserved in the National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts, Paris.
This vehicle's two-piston steam engine was designed independently of Thomas Newcomen and James Watt and was based directly on the theoretical descriptions of the French physicist Denis Papin. The engine in it was the first to employ high-pressure steam expansively without condensation. The carriage was tricycle-mounted, with the single front wheel performing both steering and driving functions. The problems of water supply and maintaining pressure severely handicapped the vehicle, which nevertheless proved the feasibility of steam-powered traction.
