+Gepard 11,292 Posted February 25, 2009 This morning, when i switched on the radio, i heared the best joke of the day. He came from Mr. Obama, who spoke yesterday in a speech of the "nation that invented the automobile". In the first moment i thought "Why he is speaking about Germany?", then i realized that he means the USA. Now it was time for a great laughter and with me the entire Germany laughted. What for the knowledge gap of the mightiest man of the world! Oh, no Barack! Ford was not the inventor of the automobile! This had done german ingenieurs. Names like Benz, Horch, Maybach, Daimler are connected with this milestone of the mankind. The nation that invented the automobile was ... 3 times you can guess! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
FastCargo 412 Posted February 25, 2009 Actually, depending on fuel source, a Frenchman named Cugnot back in the late 1700s is considered to have invented the first road going self propelled vehicle (it used steam). Now Karl Benz is widely considered the first inventor of a practical internal combusion gasoline powered vehicle in 1885. Though Damiler worked on a parallel project with similiar results (independently). The first auto manufacturers were actually Panhard & Levassor (1889) and Peugeot (1891), both French companies. Damiler and Benz didn't actually produce cars until after that...instead making money on patents and royalties of said patents. Where the United States comes into play is the invention of the basic assembly line (Olds) and improvement with a conveyor belt type setup (Ford) which allows Ford to become the world's biggest car manufacturer after 1913 (Ford has since been surpassed by others). Yep, POTUS goofed. That's as far as this thread goes folks because otherwise, it will get ugly...it always does. FC Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
