Ferdinand Verbiest Research Paper

1.The history of automobile
The first working steam-powered vehicle was probably designed by Ferdinand Verbiest, a Flemish member of a Jesuit mission in China around 1672. It was a 65 cm-long scale-model toy for the Chinese Emperor, that was unable to carry a driver or a passenger. It is not known if Verbiest's model was ever built. Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot is widely credited with building the first self-propelled mechanical vehicle or automobile in about 1769; he created a steam-powered tricycle. He also constructed two steam tractors for the French Army, one of which is preserved in the French National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts. His inventions were however handicapped by problems with water supply and maintaining steam pressure. In 1801, Richard Trevithick built and demonstrated his Puffing Devil road locomotive,
It was unable to maintain sufficient steam pressure for long periods, and was of little practical use. In 1807 Nicé phore Nié and his brother Claude probably created the world's pce first internal combustion engine which they called a Pyré olophore, but they chose to install it in a boat on the river Saone in France. Coincidentally, in 1807 the Swiss inventor Franç Isaac de Rivaz designed his own 'de Rivaz internal combustion ois engine' and used it to develop the world's first vehicle, to be powered by such an engine. The Nié pces' Pyré olophore was fuelled by a mixture of Lycopodium powder (dried Lycopodium moss), finely crushed coal dust and resin that were mixed with oil, whereas de Rivaz used a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen. Neither design was very successful, as was the case with others, such as Samuel Brown, Samuel Morey, and Etienne Lenoir with his hippomobile, who each produced vehicles (usually adapted carriages or carts) powered by clumsy internal combustion engines. In November 1881, French inventor Gustave Trouvé demonstrated a working three-wheeled automobile powered by electricity at the International