The History of the Automobile

Speaker: John Hopwood

I first presented this talk approximately seven years ago – so, hopefully, many of you will have forgotten most of it – and in any case, it has been very considerably edited and modified!

The very first car ever made is widely regarded as The Benz Patent Motorwagen of 1886, shown in the bottom right illustration. It was the first car built for resale but there were one or two rather less successful vehicles made earlier, for example La Marquise, shown bottom left, which is the oldest car still in full running order and which was built in 1884.

During this talk we will examine these vehicles and the history of many others.