The idea of the modern automobile may not seem that impressive or groundbreaking now. After all, cars of different shapes, sizes, and colors are seen on major roads every day, and the resulting traffic has become a persistent pain in every city-dweller's side. However, there was a time when today's cars were barely formed in society's collective fantasies — and their predecessors were alive only in sketchbooks, stories, and scribbles.
According to the San Diego Automotive Museum, the development of the modern automobile was propelled by approximately 100,000 patents from different inventors working separately across the world. The world-renowned thinkers Sir Isaac Newton and Leonardo da Vinci are considered to be among the pioneers in conceptualizing motor vehicles, with da Vinci sketching a self-powered "horseless, mechanized cart" that he never managed to build while he was alive (via Live Science). His last residence, a manor house called the Château du Clos Lucé, features a replica of this invention built after da Vinci's time.
Before the dawn of today's automobiles, various inventors attempted to build vehicles powered by compressed air, springs, and even windmills (via the University of Houston). A noteworthy early take on the automobile was a steam-powered carriage called a "Fiery Chariot," conceptualized by physician Erasmus Darwin in a letter to engineer Matthew Boulton in 1764, per Jalopnik. While it was never actually built, some say it may have inspired others to work on steam-powered vehicles.
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