Motor Cars
The internal combustion engine was invented by a Belgian-French engineer, Jean Lenoir in the 1860's but history has credited 1886, the year Carl Benz took out his patent for his first motor vehicle as the date of the birth of the motor car as we know it today. Carl Benz was a German automotive engineer and his Benz patent Motor Car is considered the first motor vehicle to be put into serious mass production.
Benz began selling his vehicles in 1888, making it the first commercially available motor car in history.
Hundreds of small independent manufacturer's followed him but cars were only for the wealthy.
It was 20 years later that cars really took off as a means of transport for the masses.
In 1908 the American, Henry Ford unleashed his Model 'T' Ford on the World.
Available in 'any colour as long as it was black' and built on a fully automated production line for the first time, the Model T went on to sell over 15,000,000 units until production ceased in 1927.
As an interesting side note the first successful electric car made its commercial debut in 1890 and by 1900 one third of all vehicles on the road were electric!