George A. Long Automobile, 1880

The first automobile in the U.S. was Oliver Evans' steam powered Amphibolos. But what about the first gasoline powered automobile?  That was an automobile built by George A. Long.  The surprise is that this automobile had a steam engine, and used gasoline as the fuel type. 

Long had first built a 5 wheeled vehicle powered by steam in 1875, which burned charcoal and could travel at 30 mph. 

Long built the steam engine for a second version, a tricycle, in 1879.  Shortly he built the body to go with the engine, with the use of Colonel Albert Pope's bicycle manufacturing facility.  Long's patent on the device issued in 1883 and as far as I know is the second U.S. patent on an automobile, Oliver Evans' being the first in 1803.

The steam engine of the tricycle was a V2 (two cylinders in V configuration), and delivered power to the rear wheel by a pulley that contacted the driving wheel.  Two different pulleys were available, for two different speeds: slow and really slow. 

The tricycle used wheels similar to those on the velocipedes of the day, with wooden rims and metal spokes.  The two side by side wheels preceded the automobile, and the third wheel was the driving wheel. The controls require two operators to steer, brake,  and control the power.

The vehicle weights 350 pounds, and operates at about 100 psi steam pressure. This vehicle was built before the Benz and Daimler vehicles, but they were internal combustion and this was steam. This vehicle was well ahead of the Serpollet steam vehicle of 1888, and after the 5 ton Bollee steam vehicle of 1873. The rebuilt vehicle is in the Smithsonian Museum.

 

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