Tag: history

On this day in 1899, New York City taxicab driver Jacob German became the first person in the United States to be cited for speeding while driving an automobile. German drove a cab for Electric Vehicle Company, which leased its cars to be used as taxis in the bustling city. The car German drove was known as an Electrobat (example pictured above), a fully electric vehicle invented in 1894. About 60 of these cars operated as NYC taxis in 1899. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqLTzZvKdOU At the time, New York had speed limits for horses and cars of 8 miles per hour when traveling in a straight line. When cornering, drivers had to slow to at a max speed of 4 miles per hour. German was traveling an astonishing 12 miles per hour. It was so fast that the bicycle officer who pulled Ge...

Patents for internal combustion engines date back to as far as 1807, but none were considered commercially successful until engineer Jean Joseph Étienne Lenoir of Mussy-la-Ville, Luxembourg, in modern day Belgium, came up with his own design. His design was the first to burn a mixture of coal gas and air ignited by a “jumping sparks” ignition system. The advances in his engine design entitled him to a patent for his internal combustion engine, which he received on this day in 1960. Lenoir Gas Engine on display at Quartier Des Arts-Et-Metiers, Paris. By Daryl Mitchell. CC2.0 While the engine was mostly used for stationary purposes, such as power plants, printing presses, water pumps and tooling, Lenoir applied the engines to a few automobiles between 1860 and 1863, most notably his ...