Longshanks pony can muster up an eighth of one horsepower to propel him from A to B. For most of man’s history this has proved perfectly adequate but nowadays we think nothing of climbing into a metal and glass construction powered by a combustion engine to the tune of 100, 150 or even 200 brake horsepower.

The development of a self propelling carriage was always dependent on a viable power source. When the first combustion engines became available around 1885 they revolutionised not only the field of transportation but also society as a whole. Of course the first railways had a parallel influence 50 years previously but this time the pace of change would be doubly profound. With the new light combustion engine it was suddenly possible and viable to power not only carriages and bicycles but also boats and airships (in effect balloons with a propeller). The motorised carriage quickly dismantled the 50 year “head start” of the railway in terms of popularity. The car offered independence and the adventure of exploration for all.

It is possible to trace the lineage of the combustion engine a long way back. As far back, in fact, as 100 BC when the Greek Heron conceived an engine driven by steam which already contained the fundamental parts of the modern motor. Heron took a cylinder and inserted a piston into the top end. This was held in balance by a counter weight at the other end of the cylinder. Heron then filled the cylinder with water and heated this with fire ignited below the contraption. The resultant steam powered the piston in a circular motion. It requires little imagination to envisage all kinds of agricultural applications for this technology but Herons sponsors were not interested in making the peasants lot any easier and the project become a mere footnote in history.

Before the industrial age there were other tentative steps towards the idea of the motor car. In 1460 an anonymous inventor from Memmingen in Germany built a “sail wagon”. The wind power harnessed by the sail powered wheels through a system of gear wheels. The first high pressure piston-powered steam engine was built by the Frenchman Denis Papin (1647 – 1714). The engine acted as a pump to fill a raised water tank. For the key development in the evolution of the piston we can thank Thomas Newcomen. His innovation was to allow the steam to enter the cylinder via a vent rather than heating the water inside it. The result was a much more effective machine and a signpost for the industrial revolution. Soon technology would allow the dream of the car to be realised and the world would never be the same again.

Mark Lauterwein is a UK based writer currently researching the German Autoversicherung sector. An online Preisvergleich permits an excellent overview of the current market.