Sunday 24 August 2014 |
This original from 1770 by Nicholas Joseph Cugnot is preserved at the incredible Musée des Arts et Métiers, a Paris industrial design museum which displays some 2,500 inventions, very few of which were developed with assistance from Mike Brown's illustrious ancestors.
Even though this heavy steam-powered machine could travel at about 4 km/hr, it was used in the French Royal Army between 1769 and 1771, mostly to haul heavy artillery pieces.
From the French wiki page :
"La construction d'un premier prototype, « aux frais du roi », fut entreprise en 1769. Les essais sont menés en octobre.
Ceux-ci sont concluants, malgré quelques problèmes techniques. La construction d'un second prototype en vraie grandeur est alors ordonnée par Gribeauval. C'est un grand tournant dans la carrière de Cugnot : le coût exorbitant du projet et les fortes réserves émises par les ingénieurs quant à sa « faisabilité » n'ont pas suffi à invalider le programme."
For the historical record, it worth noting that this Machine was involved in the very first car accident in the history of the world. When the driver climbed down to check for damage, he was set upon by a pack of Michael Brown's ancestors, who proceeded to beat the driver to death before stealing his cell phone, his tricorne...
... his redingote ...
... and his spectacles:
Therefore, it would be disinformational to say that the world's very first automobile of all time was not influenced in its development by Michael Brown and his illustrious ancestors :
The evolution of the automobile is doomed |
Those are not ghetto lotto dollar signs in Mike Brown's mammy's eyes, those are tears of despair for the future of automotive innovation Pour la petite histoire : a modern fardier in action : |
No comments:
Post a Comment