The wild experiments that paved the way for the first car
- Candace Watkins
- Sep 19, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: Sep 22, 2025
When Carl Benz rolled out his Patent-Motorwagen in 1886, history took note: the automobile had arrived. But long before Benz made the world’s first practical car, a series of dreamers and tinkerers were already chasing the idea of self-propelled travel. Their creations were sometimes brilliant, sometimes bizarre, and occasionally explosive but each one nudged the world closer to the modern car.
Cugnot’s Steam Monster
The story starts in 1769 with French engineer Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot, who built a massive three-wheeled steam cart for the army. His Fardier, a wheeled cart, was a groundbreaking engineering achievement that ran on steam power. When the steam rose to a higher pressure than atmospheric pressure, a piston was driven into a cylinder. He also invented a rotary valve that was activated by the piston to let the steam in and out of the machine’s two cylinders.
In a historic demonstration in France in November 1770, Cugnot's Fardier showcased its impressive capabilities by traveling 4.8 kilometers in an hour while pulling a five-ton artillery cannon. Unfortunately, the Fardier faced practical issues and limited acceptance during its time and was never produced on a wider scale.
The Combustion Dreamers
Steam was clunky. Inventors wanted something faster, lighter, and easier to use. That’s when the idea of internal combustion took hold.
In 1807, Swiss inventor Isaac de Rivaz built a contraption fueled by hydrogen gas. It barely worked and couldn’t carry passengers, but it showed what was possible.
In 1863, Belgian engineer Étienne Lenoir put his atmospheric gas engine into a carriage and actually drove it for several miles. For the first time, the dream of a “motor car” didn’t seem so far-fetched.
By 1870, Austrian mechanic Siegfried Marcus was cobbling together a handcart powered by an engine with its wheels doubling as flywheels. A bit absurd, maybe but nearly two decades later, Marcus built a far more advanced model with a four-stroke gasoline engine, carburetor, and electric ignition. Suddenly, the pieces of the modern car were on the table.
When Invention Goes Boom
Not every experiment ended in success. In 1883, French inventors Édouard Delamare-Deboutteville and Léon Malandin tested a prototype with Otto’s four-stroke engine. The first version exploded. Their second attempt broke its frame. After that, they gave up entirely. Early motoring, it turns out, was not for the faint of heart.
Benz Makes It Real
The difference between these early dreamers and Carl Benz was focus. Where others tinkered, Benz engineered. His 1886 Patent-Motorwagen wasn’t just a prototype, it was designed to be used, sold, and maintained. And thanks to his wife Bertha, who famously took the car on a long-distance drive to prove it worked, the world saw that the “horseless carriage” could be more than a curiosity.
The Long Road to the Automobile
Looking back, it’s tempting to crown Benz the sole “inventor of the car.” But the truth is richer: his breakthrough stood on the shoulders of countless experiments, some elegant, some eccentric, some that ended in flames. Together, they paved the bumpy, smoky, and exhilarating road toward the vehicles we take for granted today.