by James Lynne

Created on: September 14, 2008   Last Updated: September 19, 2008

We tend to think of steam power in vehicles only as it relates to locomotives, but the first "auto-mobile" was steam powered. Steam powered vehicles have come a long way since the first tractor-like self-propelled steam vehicle of the Eighteenth-century. In a newer, more practical design, steam powered cars are again, possible in a Twenty-first Century market that is eager for cheap fuel. It's a little known fact that the after the 1970s oil embargo automobile manufacturers perfected a steam powered automobile that could be marketed today.

The first self-propelled "auto-mobile" resembled a tractor more than a modern, streamlined car, but it was still a car, an automobile. Invented by Nicolas Cugnot, in 1769, the first self-propelled road vehicle was used as a military beast of burden to haul artillery. Paving the way for other steam driven vehicles, the Cugnot prototype demonstrated that auto-mobiles were the way of the future.

The steam engine as an automobile power source was first designed as an ECE, external combustion engine, rather than the internal combustion engine using carbon based fuels to heat the water supply. It was bulky, heavy, awkward, and cumbersome as a result. The steam engine directs combustion away from the engine rather than internally, within the engine. Modern automobile, fossil fuel engines are internal combustion engines.

Originally, steam driven and even electric cars were more popular than internal combustion vehicles because of complications with starting gasoline powered vehicles. Prior to the invention of the electric starter, gasoline powered vehicles had to be started manually by external crank. In the event of an engine backfire, the crank could abruptly turn itself, breaking the arm of the inattentive motorist attempting to crank it. Steam driven cars took a few moments to warm up, to build a head of steam power, but this was considered less of an obstacle than the risk of a broken limb.

The first steam driven vehicles had a number of drawbacks, but people were eager to drive, making these drawbacks tolerable. The necessity of a boiler box and large radiator made steam powered cars cumbersome, heavy, and awkward. As technology advanced many of the negatives associated with steam vehicles were overcome, however. High-pressure steam engines designed in the Nineteenth Century allowed for a more practical and compact application of the steam driven automobile. In the late Nineteenth Century, another Frenchman, Amedee Bollee manufactured

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