Today we discuss the close competition between steam, electric, and combustion, during the birth of the automobile and The Battle to Build the First Car

In the middle of the 19th century, the world ran on steam. Giant iron locomotives thundered across continents, steamships across wide oceans, and in the cities, the hiss of boilers and the clang of pistons were the soundtrack of progress. The future, it seemed, would always be built upon water and fire.

But beneath the soot and steam, a few restless inventors began to wonder: could motion be made smaller? Could power belong not to railways or ships — but to people? The idea was radical — a carriage that moved without horses, a machine that could carry a man down any road, under his own command.

It was an era before gasoline had even found its purpose. As we mentioned a  ...