Quote:
Originally Posted by Darkland
"Around 1672 he designed ? as a toy for the Chinese Emperor ? a steam-propelled trolley which was, quite possibly, the first working steam-powered vehicle ('auto-mobile').... only 60cm long.... It is not known if Verbiest's model was ever built at the time."
We are talking about "practical" inventions, as in completed to working models. Leonardo made sketched designs for a helicopter but he isn't the "inventor" who works out all the technical bugs for a working model.
I could sketch a design for a time machine or a teleporter but that doesn't make ME the inventor.  |
Apparently Cugnot and Verbiest are in the same boat. Did they actually build them? Did they actually run?
"Although Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot is often credited with building the first self-propelled mechanical vehicle or automobile in about 1769 by adapting an existing horse-drawn vehicle, this claim is disputed by some, who doubt Cugnot's three-wheeler ever ran or was stable"