From wheel to automobile
“The long road to the car” is an introduction for the whole Riga Motor Mmuseum’s exposition and the automobile’s origins. The exposition showcases the humanities progress towards the creation of more and more refined means of transportation.
The Museum exposition begins through the story of automotive beginnings – how, step-by-step, mankind invented various devices and technologies, that later made the creation of the automobile possible. It took a 5,000-year journey of inventions and discoveries, to progress from the invention of the wheel to the first automobile.
As early as 1769, the French artillery captain Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot built the first steam-powered cart. In the 19th century mankind discovered the miracle of electricity, and thus the first battery electric vehicle was constructed in the 1830s. Along with the invention of the first internal combustion engine, the construction of the first automobile was no longer such a far-fetched prospect. Karl Benz patented his Benz Patent Motorwagen in 1886, becoming the pioneer of the automotive industry.