Cars still have a long way to go

Ten-year-old Jack Schooley of Vernon Hills, a fifth-grader at Mundelein's West Oak Middle School, asked: "What was the first car to be created?"

The need for mechanized mobility has been driving inventors for centuries. Even Leonardo DaVinci drew up plans in the mid-1400s for a car powered by coiled springs. The idea was stalled for a few hundred years, but the invention of the steam engine in the mid-1700s brought the dream back to life. Steam engines were used to drive all sorts of things - farm machinery, textile machinery, trains, boats and even horseless carriages - what we now call cars.

Steam would become the likely source to power the wheels of the future. Nicolas Cugnot from France invented a steam-powered military vehicle in 1771. It was too heavy and impractical, so inventors worldwide continued to puzzle over better ways to fuel a motorized vehicle.

Electricity was an option. In the early 1830s, Robert Anderson of Scotland created an electric-powered car, but it needed constant recharging and wasn't practical for long trips. The concept of using electricity to power a vehicle was successfully applied to streetcars, trolleys and commuter trains using a constant source of electricity, and we've been riding in them ever since.

Personal cars were still a pie-in-the-sky idea. The right type of engine needed a reliable fuel source. Starting in 1680, inventors worked on plans for an internal combustion engine, an engine that used an explosive to push pistons that turn the crankshaft which moves the wheels. Trial engines were powered by different fuels - gunpowder, a hydrogen and oxygen mix, kerosene and gasoline.

It seems that gasoline was the best all-around option. 1886, Germans Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz received the first patent for a gas-powered internal combustion vehicle. That idea was also developed by other inventors who built their own car companies, although not all became as successful as Daimler Benz's Mercedes-Benz. The Duryea brothers from Indiana began a car manufacturing business in 1893, producing 13 gas-powered cars in the first year that topped speeds of 7.5 miles per hour.

In the United States today, there are more than 250 million cars on the road. Inventors are still trying to merge consumer tastes and their wallets to develop better car choices. High gas prices have driven car companies to rethink their products. A concern for the effect of car exhaust on the air we breathe has become a priority. Once again, there's no shortage of need for inventors to create new options.

"Electric vehicles are the cars of the future," said mechanical engineering professor Dr. Craig Hoff at Kettering University in Flint, Mich. "Except for the range. The batteries are not yet good enough." Hydrogen, an element used in a car prototype 200 years ago, is again being tried as a possible fuel source. "The technology for fuel cells is still being developed." The best option will be fueled by these three items: Energy per dollar, concern for the environment and range, Professor Hoff said.