It was actually able to do laps on its own: inventors from the Technical University of Ingolstadt have confirmed the functionality of what is apparently the first self-driving object in history. It was a small steam automobile with which the Jesuit missionary Ferdinand Verbiest wanted to impress the Chinese emperor almost 350 years ago. The information about the replica came from a description of the device in a historical document from Dillingen.
On January 29, 1886, an event occurred that would change the course of history: This date is considered the birthday of the car – Carl Benz received the patent for his vehicle with a combustion engine. However, this was only the most successful development, because Benz was not the first to build a self-driving object. In principle, other inventors had already set cars with combustion technology in motion and before that there were also versions based on steam technology. But these early developments were forgotten. This also applies to the oldest example, reports the Technical University of Ingolstadt (THI): The Belgian Jesuit priest and scholar Ferdinand Verbiest (1623 to 1688) constructed a self-propelled device almost 350 years ago.
“Self-mover” with steam technology
However, you could not drive around with the machine, which is only 60 centimeters long and 30 centimeters wide, on four wheels. Transporting people or loads was also not the aim of Verbiest, who was then living at the Chinese imperial court in Beijing. The Ingolstadt historian Gerd Treffen has dealt with this story in more detail. As he explains, the Jesuit missionary and scholar wanted to prove that the principle of the “self-mover” works with steam. The small vehicle was supposed to impress the Chinese emperor and show what technical achievements the West was capable of, explains Treff.
The function of the device was based on the recoil effect of water vapor emerging from a nozzle. According to tradition, this principle was already known in antiquity: the early engineer Heron of Alexandria constructed a ball that hissed spinning – the first known heat engine in history. However, it was not understood and used as such. Verbiest went at least one step further: he converted the steam pressure into the movement of wheels. So its construction, controlled by a rudder-like fifth wheel, did its laps in the Imperial Palace. As Hit reports, Verbiest has summarized all the scientific achievements of the Jesuits in China for his superiors in a book that was printed in Dillingen at the time. It also includes a description of the little car.
Description in a historical print from Dillingen
There it says: “In the middle I put a basin full of glowing coals and over this container an aeolopile; With the axle of the front wheels I connected a bronze gear, the teeth of which, lying horizontally and transversely, meshed with another small wheel, which was attached to an axle perpendicular to the horizon and worked in such a way that when the latter axle turned who moved the car, ”wrote Verbiest. As he further explains, he added another wheel to this axle, which was provided with wind-catching structures on the outside. “Pressing on them, the wind emitted by a narrow nozzle of the Aeolopile turned the whole wheel and at the same time drove the car, which drove an hour or more in a fairly rapid manner.”
Verbiest did not provide a drawing or a construction plan. However, there is a historical sketch by an unknown draftsman from a later period, which illustrates what the device looked like. As Treffer’s research shows, it was probably based on a replica that the physicist Johann Lorenz Böckmann from Karlsruhe made about 100 years after Verbiest. However, this model was lost.
Functionality confirmed
Treffer’s wish to actually see the vehicle in motion then formed the basis of a project at THI: Under the direction of Thomas Suchandt, a team of students from the mechanical engineering faculty used the descriptions from Verbiest’s book to create construction plans for the automobile to create. On the basis of this, they then built a true-to-scale model of the car. The woodwork was carried out by students from the Ingolstadt Montessori School, among others. Experimentation was also the order of the day when it came to construction: “Some parts flew around our ears,” reports Suchandt. “The whole project was a journey into the history of technology. We have dealt with things that have not been in use for centuries, ”says the mechanical engineering expert.
But as the THI reports, the project was successful: The first exit was successful, and thus the confirmation was provided: The Verbiests concept was able to ensure movement. “The recoil with the help of water vapor was already known to the ancient Egyptians. But this heat engine, called aeolipile, was considered a curiosity with no practical use at the time. The spectacular thing about Verbiest’s development is therefore that the object can move on its own, ”Suchandt sums up.
The project is now to be continued: For the construction of another version of the vehicle, the inventors want to stick to the use of historical materials even more closely, writes the THI.