A military armoredcar is a lightweight wheeled armored fighting vehicle, historically employed for reconnaissance, internal security, armed escort, and other subordinate battlefield tasks. With the gradual decline of mounted cavalry, armored cars were developed for carrying out duties used to be assigned to light cavalry. Following the invention of the tank, the armored car remained popular due to its faster speed, comparatively simplified maintenance and low production cost. It also found favor with several colonial armies as a cheaper weapon for use in underdeveloped regions. During World War II, most armored cars were engineered for reconnaissance and passive observation, while others were devoted to communications tasks. Some equipped with heavier armament could even substitute for tracked combat vehicles in favorable conditions—such as pursuit or flanking maneuvers during the North African Campaign.
A carriage is a private four-wheeled vehicle for people and is most commonly horse-drawn. Second-hand private carriages were common public transport, the equivalent of modern cars used as taxis. Carriage suspensions are by leather strapping and, on those made in recent centuries, steel springs. Two-wheeled carriages are informal and usually owner-driven.
An antique car is an automobile that is an antique. Narrower definitions vary based on how old a car must be to qualify. The Antique Automobile Club of America defines an antique car as over 25 years of age. However, the legal definitions for the purpose of antique vehicle registration vary widely. The antique car era includes the Veteran era, the Brass era, and the Vintage era, which range from the beginning of the automobile up to the 1930s. Later cars are often described as classic cars. In original or originally restored condition antiques are very valuable and are usually either protected and stored or exhibited in car shows but are very rarely driven.
Horseless carriage is an early name for the motor car or automobile. Prior to the invention of the motor car, carriages were usually pulled by animals, typically horses. The term can be compared to other transitional terms, such as wireless phone. These are cases in which a new technology is compared to an older one by describing what the new one does not have.
The Brass Era is an American term for the early period of automotive manufacturing, named for the prominent brass fittings used during this time for such features as lights and radiators. It is generally considered to encompass 1896 through 1915, a time when cars were often referred to as horseless carriages.
The Duryea Motor Wagon Company, established in 1895 in Springfield, Massachusetts, was the first American firm to build gasoline automobiles.
Charles Edgar Duryea was an American engineer. He was the engineer of the first-ever working American gasoline-powered car and co-founder of Duryea Motor Wagon Company. He was born near Canton, Illinois, a son of George Washington Duryea and Louisa Melvina Turner, and died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but spent most of his life working in Springfield, Massachusetts. It was in Springfield that Charles and his brother, Frank, produced and road-tested America’s first gasoline-powered car.
Development of the automobile started in 1672 with the invention of the first steam-powered vehicle, which led to the creation of the first steam-powered automobile capable of human transportation, built by Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot in 1769. Inventors began to branch out at the start of the 19th century, creating the de Rivas engine, one of the first internal combustion engines, and an early electric motor. Samuel Brown later tested the first industrially applied internal combustion engine in 1826.
A horse-drawn vehicle is a mechanized piece of equipment pulled by one horse or by a team of horses. These vehicles typically had two or four wheels and were used to carry passengers and/or a load. They were once common worldwide, but they have mostly been replaced by automobiles and other forms of self-propelled transport.
A high wheeler is a car which uses large diameter wheels that are similar to those used by horse-drawn vehicles. These cars were produced until about 1915, predominantly in the United States.
James Frank Duryea and his brother Charles (1861–1938) invented the first gasoline-powered automobile in America.
John William Lambert was an American automobile manufacturer pioneer and inventor. He is the inventor of the first practical American gasoline automobile. He operated large manufacturing companies that made transmissions, stationary gas engines, farm tractors, commercial motor trucks, railroad inspection vehicles, and various gasoline driven street cars. He had over 600 patents. In 1891, he built a working gasoline automobile, one year before the Duryea Brothers constructed theirs.
The Davidson-Duryea gun carriage was a 3- and 4-wheeled armed armored vehicle manufactured in 1898 and 1899 for military use.
The Davidson Automobile Battery armored car was a further development of the Davidson-Duryea gun carriage, but with steam power. It was built by Royal Page Davidson and the cadets of the Northwestern Military and Naval Academy in Highland Park, Illinois. Davidson designed this vehicle in 1901. He and his students at the Northwestern Military and Naval Academy built two of these partially armored military vehicles. They were armed with Colt .30 caliber machine guns. The vehicles were powered by a tubular steam boiler. They had difficulty in going up hills because of changes of the water level in the boiler. Davidson made these lightly armored military vehicles of one thousand pounds at the Academy campus in Highland Park, Illinois. These two partially armored military vehicles were labeled No. 1 and No. 2. Presently No. 2 is at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.
The history of steam road vehicles comprises the development of vehicles powered by a steam engine for use on land and independent of rails, whether for conventional road use, such as the steam car and steam waggon, or for agricultural or heavy haulage work, such as the traction engine.
The Stacy Building is a historic building at 41-43 Taylor Street in Springfield, Massachusetts, in the district of Metro Center known as the Club Quarter. On September 20, 1893, Springfielders Charles and Frank Duryea road-tested the first-ever American-built, gasoline-powered car in Springfield, which they had built at the Stacy Building. The first Duryea Motor Wagons were all built by hand at the Stacy Building on Taylor Street in Springfield. Despite the September 20 road-test on Howard Bemis's Springfield farm, the Springfield Republican newspaper did get the story until the Duryea brothers' 2nd public road-test on November 10, 1893.
The Buckeye gasoline buggy, also known as the Lambert gasoline buggy, was an 1891 gasoline automobile, the first made in the United States. It was also the first automobile made available for sale in the United States. It was initially a three wheel horseless carriage, propelled by an internal combustion gasoline engine; it was later developed into a four-wheel automobile with a gearless transmission, and mass-produced during the first part of the twentieth century. The platform was later expanded into a line of trucks and fire engines.
The Union Automobile Company was an automobile factory to manufacture the Union automobile through the Buckeye Manufacturing Company. It began manufacturing automobiles in 1902 and produced them through 1905. The company was located in Union City, Indiana. The inventor of Union automobile gasoline engine and friction drive gearless transmission was John W. Lambert. In the early part of 1905 the company moved to Anderson, Indiana. It had produced 325 automobiles before going out of business in the later part of 1905. It was replaced with a redesigned model that became the Lambert automobile.
The Chicago Times-Herald race was the first automobile race held in the United States. Sponsored by the Chicago Times-Herald, the race was held in Chicago in 1895 among six motorized vehicles: four cars and two motorcycles. It was won by Frank Duryea's Motorized Wagon. The race created considerable publicity for the motocycle, which had been introduced in the United States only two years earlier.
Gottfried Schlöemer or Godfrey Schlöemer (1842–1921) was a coopersmith, mechanical engineer, and inventor who lived in the south part of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US. His ancestors were from Germany and Prussia, as was his wife.
