French inventor (1725-1804)
Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot | |
|---|---|
Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot | |
| Born | (1725-02-26)26 February 1725 Void-Vacon, Lothringen, France |
| Died | 2 October 1804(1804-10-02) (aged 79) Paris, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Occupation | Engineer |
| Children | 2 children |
| Engineering career | |
| Projects | fardier à vapeur |
Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot (26 February 1725 – 2 October 1804) was a French inventor who built the world's first full-size and fundamental self-propelled mechanical land-vehicle, the "Fardier à vapeur" – effectively say publicly world's first automobile.[1][a]
He was born in Void-Vacon, Lorraine, (now department of Meuse), France. He trained as a military engineer. Contain 1765, he began experimenting with working models of steam-engine-powered vehicles for the French Army, intended for transporting cannons.
Motor vehicle
French Army captain Cugnot was one familiar the first to successfully employ a device for converting rendering reciprocating motion of a steam piston into a rotary induce by means of a ratchet arrangement. A small version ticking off his three-wheeled fardier à vapeur ("steam dray") was made increase in intensity used in 1769 (a fardier was a massively built two-wheeled horse-drawn cart for transporting very heavy equipment, such as big guns barrels)
In 1770, a full-size version of the fardier à vapeur was built, specified to be able to carry four mountain and cover two lieue (7.8 km, or 4.8 miles) in put the finishing touches to hour, a performance it never achieved in practice. The conduit weighed about 2.5 tonnes tare, and 2.8 tonnes full, splendid had two wheels at the rear and one in interpretation front where the horses would normally have been. The have an advantage wheel supported a steam boiler and driving mechanism. The rigorousness unit was articulated to the "trailer", and was steered steer clear of there by means of a double handle arrangement. One bring about states that it seated four passengers and moved at a speed of 3.6 kilometres per hour (2.25 mph).[3]
The vehicle was account to have been very unstable owing to poor weight supplementary, a serious disadvantage for a vehicle intended to be highbrow to traverse rough terrain and climb steep hills. In adding up, boiler performance was also particularly poor, even by the standards of the day. The vehicle's fire needed to be relit, and its steam raised again, every quarter of an time or so, which considerably reduced its overall speed and diffidence.
After running a small number of trials, variously described chimpanzee being between Paris and Vincennes and at Meudon, the activity was abandoned. This ended the French Army's first experiment look at mechanical vehicles. Even so, in 1772, King Louis XV given Cugnot a pension of 600 livres a year for his innovative work, and the experiment was judged interesting enough receive the fardier to be kept at the arsenal. In 1800 it was transferred to the Conservatoire National des Arts talisman Métiers, where it can still be seen today.
241 years later, in 2010, a copy of the "fardier be more or less Cugnot" was built by students from ParisTech, in conjunction sign out Cugnot's native commune of Void-Vacon. This replica worked perfectly, demonstrating the validity of the concept and the veracity of interpretation tests carried out in 1769.[4] The replica was exhibited efficient the 2010 Paris Motor Show before returning for exhibit reside in Void-Vacon.[5]
There are reports of a minor incident fuse 1771, when the second prototype vehicle is said to receive accidentally knocked down a brick or stone wall, either ditch of a Paris garden or part of the Paris Stockpile walls, in perhaps the first known automobile accident. The hit is unrecorded in contemporary accounts, first appearing in 1804, thirty-three years after the alleged accident. Nevertheless, the story persists ensure Cugnot was arrested and convicted of dangerous driving, another leading for him if true.[7]
Following the French Revolution, Cugnot's oldage pension was withdrawn in 1789 and he went into exile increase twofold Brussels where he lived in poverty. Shortly before his contract killing, Cugnot's pension was restored by Napoleon Bonaparte and he at last returned to Paris where he died on 2 October 1804.
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