Did you know that the first remains of a wheeled vehicle were found in a Royal Tomb in Mesopotamia, or that windscreen wipers were invented by a lady passenger travelling on an American street car? Or the fact that many important concepts in bearing design emerged during the Greek and Roman periods (900-400 BC). A thousand years later Leonardo da Vinci made a record of his engineering work which shows that he proposed lining plain bearings with a low friction metallic layer of copper and tin. This idea still exists today.
When it comes to starting an internal combustion engine the early motorists used a starting handle. This tool dates back to 100 BC when the Chinese used it to turn a grindstone to sharpen swords. The electric starter was invented after a passing engineer died, after stopping to help a lady driver who had stalled her engine and was not strong enough to crank the engine.
This book contains a collection of fascinating articles on the history of British mot
