From Steam to Gasoline 



Figure 1 1. — Siegfried Marcus' gasoline-powered vehicle of 1875, now pre- 

 served in the Technisches Museum fur Industrie und Gewerbe at Vienna. This 

 is probably the earliest gasoline automobile in existence. 



In France several men constructed steam automobiles of 

 fairly advanced design, chief among them being Amedee 

 Bollee, Albert de Dion, and Leon Serpollet. Bollee's first 

 machine, completed in 1873, was followed by improved 

 models of various sizes built by his son as well as himself. 

 All were successful, and some of them attained considerable 

 speed over the roads. Some of his steamers are to be seen 

 today at the Conservatoire at Paris, and at the Musee de 

 la Voiture at Compiegne. 



Vehicles powered by internal-combustion engines came 

 into the picture with the construction, about 1863, by Jean 

 Joseph Etienne Lenoir of a vehicle employing a 1 -cylinder 

 engine of the type patented by him in 1860. Lenoir, a 

 French citizen born in Belgium, wrote that the vehicle was 

 clumsy, was powered with a 1 V2- horsepower motor making 

 100 revolutions per minute, yet was driven in an hour and 

 a half to Joinville-le-Pont, some 6 miles from the starting 

 point. 



Shortly afterward, in 1864, Siegfried Marcus, of Vienna, 

 built a vehicle with a vertical, 1 -cylinder, modified-Lenoir 

 gas engine, also using electric ignition, and a carburetor with 

 liquid fuel. This 4-wheeled vehicle is said to have run 



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