Cartwheel to Cayenne

Humans have possessed knowledge of the wheel for several thousand years and carts have been mentioned in literature as far back as the second millennium B.C. In some sense, the earliest fore runners of the car date back to the earliest mists of our pre history. The wagon existed in its animal-drawn form for thousands of years before it was possible to make it self-propelled, literally an "auto-mobile."

Ironically, this ‘technological toy’ was invented by a Flemish missionary named Ferdinand Verbiest as a toy for the Chinese emperor. Considering this is over 200 years before the construction of what's generally considered the first modern automobile, this was a remarkable achievement, yet we are not sure if this was an actual invention or a figment of Verbiest’s own imagination. What we can be assured of is this- Although Steam technology was still in its infancy at the time, Verbiest’s rudimentary, ball-shaped boiler, which then forced steam towards a turbine that could turn the back wheels, was effectively one of the earliest scale models of an automobile. 

At the end of the seventeenth century, existing vehicular technology was more than adequate to meet the demands of society. In the age of absolute monarchs, it was more important to solve other engineering challenges that were difficult or impossible to achieve with conventional energy sources. While no one was really tackling this subject directly, the legendary Dutch scientist Christian Huygens did take a crucial step towards the car in 1673, one year after Verbiest reputedly began work on his ‘technological’ toy for the emperor of China. The 1700’s were dominated by various inventors trying to perfect the steam engine.


From Karl Benz’s automobile production being the first in the 18th century to the 20th century where the automobile industry started spreading its wings in various parts of the world, cars have certainly evolved in terms of technological advancement. Ranging from Vintage cars to Classics such as the Ford V-8, Rolls Royce Phantom, to the SUV’s and the latest luxury ones like the Mercerdes or the Cayenne, (a five seat mid size luxury crossover), this toy has been played around with fantastically.
We could thank the Frenchmen crashing into walls, Dutchmen building engines out of gunpowder, or Brits crowding themselves onto noisy, supremely dangerous steam buses. It’s because of their interest in ‘toying’ around with technology that the simple Cart wheel has indeed become a modern marvel today.

Prerna Vazir