In the early 1880s Gottleib Daimler worked as an assistant to Dr. Nicholas Otto. Otto was an early maker of gasoline engines, in a time where there was little use for the volatile fraction from oil. Daimler decided to leave Otto and build vehicles using a gas engine. His first vehicle was a test bed for later automobiles, and was basically a motorcycle with training wheels. It was called the Daimler Reitwagen, and was patented in 1885.
It had a wooden frame, a seat about like a saddle for a horse, and two outrigger wheels on springs. Daimler's son rode the machine for 6 miles around the roads rural Cannstatt Germany. The machine had twist grip controls, and was air cooled. It had one cylinder, weighed 198 lbs (90 kg), and a top speed of 7mph (12km/hr). The engine was fan cooled, put out 0.5 hp, and ran at 700 rpm. The wheels were wooden with an iron band on the outside. Considered by some the first motorcycle, it actually had 4 wheels so was not a motorcycle, and came 16 years after the steam powered motorcycle of Sylvester Roper, and 14 years after the Michaux - Perreaux steam powered bicycle.
At the same time as Daimler was developing his "motorcycle", his future partner Carl Benz was designing a motorized tricycle.
It’s great that more people are focusing on making better environmental choices. Plus technology is making it more economical now, and that’s what people really notice. Wind energy, solar power, hybrids and zap EV’s, our choices are good. There are now electric cars being sold everyday, you just plug it into a regular power outlet. When people test drive them they say it’s far more fun to drive an EV.
Posted by: Web | March 24, 2008 at 05:38 PM