1770 Steam-Powered "Car"

1770 Steam-Powered "Car" FARM HOME Cars 34-1-44 "I read with interest the article in the last issue of FARM SHOW about the 1875 Grenville steam carriage. I wanted to let you know that there was a steam-driven car built and driven 105 years earlier than the one you featured," says Ray D. Gottfried, Tampa, Fla. "The æFardier', invented by Nicholas-Joseph Cugnot in 1770 was built under auspices of the French government, designed to carry guns and artillery for the military. During one experiment in 1770, the Fardier pulled a load weighing 5 tons at a rate of 3 mph." The Fardier didn't get past the prototype stage, due to a lack of funding, and ended up in a French museum - Le Conservatoire de Arts et Metiers - where it still resides today. There is also an exact replica of the Fardier at the Deutsche Bahn Museum in Nuremberg that was built in 1934 for a movie on steam power. This car ran at the time it was built and was filmed in action. It was recently on display at the Tampa Bay Auto Museum in Florida, where Gottfried saw it. He also points out that other steam cars were built, one as early as 1805 by Oliver Evans in Philadelphia. In 1833 a steam bus operated back and forth between London and Birmingham, carrying 44 passengers at speeds up to 14 mph. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Ray Gottfried, 8904 Sheldon West Dr., Tampa, Fla. 33626 (ph 813 792-1373).

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