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.
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 Quadricycle was an early form of automobile. Earliest models were propelled by a small steam engine, then designers switched to early internal combustion engines as they became available. The word is derived from the fact that it had four wheels and used a lot of technology from the bicycles of the era.
The Duryea Motor Wagon Company, established in 1895 in Springfield, Massachusetts, was the first American firm to build gasoline automobiles.
The Duryea Motor Wagon was among the first standardized automobiles and among the first powered by gasoline. Fifteen examples were built by the Duryea Motor Wagon Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts, between 1893 and 1896. Their enterprise followed the first commercially available automobile which was patented by Karl Benz on January 29, 1886, and put into production in 1888.
A steam car is a car (automobile) propelled by a steam engine. A steam engine is an external combustion engine (ECE), whereas the gasoline and diesel engines that eventually became standard are internal combustion engines (ICE). ECEs have a lower thermal efficiency, but carbon monoxide production is more readily regulated.
Charles Edgar Duryea was an American engineer. He was the engineer of the first 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.
Stevens-Duryea was an American manufacturer of Veteran and Brass Era automobiles in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, between 1901 and 1915 and Vintage Cars from 1919 to 1927.
Crude ideas and designs of automobiles can be traced back to ancient and medieval times. In 1649, Hans Hautsch of Nuremberg built a clockwork-driven carriage. In 1672, a small-scale steam-powered vehicle was created; the first steam-powered automobile capable of human transportation was built by Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot in 1769. Inventors began to branch out at the start of the 19th century, creating the de Rivaz 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. Only two of these were made.
Thornycroft was an English vehicle manufacturer which built coaches, buses, and trucks from 1896 until 1977.
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 was an American engineer and inventor who, with his brother Charles (1861–1938), invented the first American gasoline-powered automobile.
Motocycle was a word used in the United States in the latter part of the 19th century for a horseless carriage, the type of vehicle now known as a car or automobile. The word caught on initially as it was short and easier to understand than other possibilities, such as "automobile carriage", "motor carriage", "motor vehicle", or "auto carriage". It is now archaic and rarely used. The term "motor vehicle" is currently used in legal, transportation planning and academic terminology.
A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people over cargo. There are around one billion cars in use worldwide. The car is considered an essential part of the developed economy.
The Davidson-Duryea gun carriage was originally a 3 wheel armed vehicle built by the Duryea Motor Wagon Company in the 1899. The gun carriage was ordered by Royal Page Davidson of the Northwestern Military and Naval Academy in Highland Park, Illinois. One Northwestern cadet wrote: "With this gun you could sneak upon an enemy and fire 480 shots and get away before they would know what happened." In 1900 the carriage was modified to 4 wheels and eventually into the Davidson Auto Battery armored car.
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 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.
The Locomotives on Highways Act 1896 removed the strict rules and UK speed limits that were included in the earlier Locomotive Acts which had greatly restricted the adoption of motorised vehicles in the United Kingdom. It came into operation on 14 November 1896.
Stearns Steam Carriage Company was a manufacturer of steam automobiles in Syracuse, New York, founded by Edward C. Stearns. Stearns built electric automobiles from 1899 to 1900 and steam cars from 1901 to 1903. The company was also known as the Stearns Automobile Company in 1903.
Walter Charles Bersey was a British electrical engineer who developed electric-driven vehicles in the late 19th-century. He developed a new form of dry battery that enabled him to build, in 1888, an electric bus that he ran successfully for at least 3,000 miles (4,800 km). In March 1894 he built an electric parcel van that was used in central London and later developed electric private cars. Bersey also developed an electric cab design, 75 of which were built and used by the London Electrical Cab Company to run a service between 1897 and 1899. They were not financially successful owing to noise and vibration leading to excessive damage to tyres and batteries. In his later career Bersey developed designs for internal combustion engine cars and during the First World War served with the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force.
