FROM CART TO AUTOMOBILE 



immediately the recently devised gas engine was called 

 into requisition, and after that the development of the 

 automobile was only a matter of detail. But, as so 

 often happens with practical inventions, there are dis- 

 puted questions of priority regarding the application 

 of the gasoline engine to this particular use. The en- 

 gine itself was perfected, as we have elsewhere seen, 

 about 1876, by the German, Dr. Otto. 



It appears that in 1879 an American, Mr. George B. 

 Selden, appHed for a patent designed to cover the use 

 of the internal combustion engine as a motor for road 

 vehicles. Owing to technical complications the patent 

 was not actually issued until the year 1895. Mean- 

 tinie at least as early as 1885 Herr Daimler in Ger- 

 many had used the gasoline motor for the practical 

 propulsion of a tricycle; and not long after that 

 date the right to use his patents had been acquired 

 in France by Messrs. Panhard and Levassor. These 

 men soon applied the Daimler motor to four-wheeled 

 vehicles of various types, and almost at a bound the 

 automobile as we know it was developed. Early in 

 the *9o's the custom of having annual road races was 

 introduced, and before the century had closed the 

 automobile was everywhere a familiar object on the 

 roads of Europe and America. 



While the introduction of the automobile is thus a 

 comparatively recent event, it should be known that 

 the idea of using mechanical power to propel a road 

 vehicle is by no means peculiar to our generation. 

 Practical working automobiles were constructed long 

 before any person now living was bom. The very 



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