An automobile, also known as a car, is a passenger vehicle with wheels that utilizes a motor. It is difficult to give an exact definition of an automobile, but most would agree that they are vehicles designed to operate on roads, have seats for at least one person, utilize four wheels, and are designed for the transportation of people. As of 2007, there are more than 600 million passenger cars in the world which works out to about one car per eleven people.
Automobile history
In the United States, most believe that Henry Ford was the inventor of the automobile. However, various sources claim that Ferdinand Verbiest may have built a steam powered car around 1672 in China. A Swiss inventor by the name of François Isaac de Rivaz created the first internal combustion engine which utilized a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen. He then used that engine to develop the first automobile to run on it.
In 1885, Karl Benz built an automobile that utilized an Otto gasoline engine. He was granted a patent about one year later and Benz is now credited by most sources as being the inventor of what we have come to know as the modern automobile.
The first scaled production of automobiles that were reasonably affordable took place at the Ransom Olds factory in 1902. It utilized an assembly line which was the expanded upon by Henry Ford during the 1910's. At this point, automotive technology improved at an increasing rate due to the hundreds of smaller companies entering the industry.
Fuel Technologies
In today's modern world, most automobiles untilize gasoline as they source of propulsion. However, this has led to widespread air and other forums of pollution. As a result, there is a race to develop a feasible alternative means of automobile propulsion.
Gasoline
In comparison to diesal, regular gasonline engines are lighter and work at higher rotational speeds. Because of this, gasoline engines are always the choice for performance and sports cars. Due to the popularity of gasonline as the main propulsion fuel for automobiles, there has been continued improvements in efficiency and pollution negation.
Gasoline engines have the advantage over diesel in being lighter and able to work at higher rotational speeds and they are the usual choice for fitting in high performance sports cars. Technologies such as the catalytic converter and fuel injection systems have become universally added to new cars due to clean air legislation.
Diesal
The first diesal powered cars were introduced in Europe in the 1930's by Citroen and Mercedez Benz. The reason diesal is so popular is it burns at 50% efficiency compared to the 27% efficiency rate of normal gasoline. However, diesal products a lot of exhaust in the form of soot particles which leads to air pollution. Various filters can be utilized to cut down on the pariculate matter.
Automobile
