On the night of September 20, 1893, in Chicopee, Massachusetts, Frank Duryea hitched a horse to the weird contraption he had built and pulled it to the edge of town. He unhitched the horse, turned the flywheel to start the one-cylinder two-cycle engine, jumped into the seat, grabbed the tiller, moved it to take up the slack in the transmission belt and drove 25 feet when the engine stalled. He restarted the engine and the second time drove 200 feet, and then ended his work for the day. This dramatic moment was an important milestone in the development of the automobile industry.

The design for the first Duryea automobile was conceived by Charles Duryea, Frank’s older brother, who arranged for the project financing by Erwin Markham in March 1892. Charles moved to Peoria a few months later, leaving Frank to build the car. The original design proved to be unworkable, but with design changes suggested and built by Frank, the car was demonstrated as stated above according to one automobile historian, another puts the date of the first test drive on the following day.

No single person can be credited for invention of the automobile. Its development must be attributed to incremental inventive steps by people in both Europe and the United States. Steam was suggested by Englishman Sir Isaac Newton to propel a vehicle. In 1769 a Scottish engineer, James Watt, invented the first practical steam engine. American Oliver Evans built and demonstrated a steam-powered automobile and obtained a patent for it in 1792. It was the first motorcar patent issued by the United States patent office.

Parallel developments in Scotland, England, France and Germany led to the 4-cycle internal combustion gasoline engine built by Nicholas Otto of Germany in 1877. Carriages of various types were built in England, France, Germany and Austria using these early engines. In addition to those in Europe, and before the Duryea automobile, self-propelled vehicles with steam, gasoline and other type engines were built and demonstrated by Americans such as Samuel Morey in 1826, James Hill in 1868, George Brayton in 1873, Sephaniah Reese in 1887 and Henry Nadig, John Lambert and Charles Black in 1891. For various reasons, perhaps for the unreliable, impractical design and noise of unmuffled engines, they were not accepted by the general public, and none of these went into production.

Frank Duryea’s first car in 1893 has many weaknesses, but he continued his development work and built a completely new and greatly improved vehicle. He formed the Duryea Motor Car Company in September 1895, the first in America. Two months later he won a 54-mile race sponsored by the Chicago Times-Herald newspaper, thereby establishing the 4-cycle gasoline engine as the reliable and practical choice for the automobile.

The public was now ready for the horseless carriage. By 1900, 38 companies were producing automobiles. There were 47 more companies in 1902 and another 57 in 1903. Most soon failed, but many succeeded, and the automobile became a practicality that changed the way people lived probably more than any invention ever.