Vehicle Information

A vehicle (from Latin: vehiculum^[1]) is a device that is designed or used to transport people or cargo. Most often vehicles are manufactured, such as bicycles, cars, motorcycles, trains, ships, boats, and aircraft.^[2]

Vehicles that do not travel on land often are called craft, such as watercraft, sailcraft, aircraft, hovercraft, and spacecraft.

Land vehicles are classified broadly by what is used to apply steering and drive forces against the ground: wheeled, tracked, railed, or skied. ISO 3833- 1977 is the standard, also internationally used in legislation, for road vehicles types, terms and definitions^[3]

History of vehicles

• The oldest boats to be found by archaeological excavation are logboats from around 7,000–9,000 years ago,^[4][5][6][7]
• a 7,000 year-old seagoing boat made from reeds and tar has been found in Kuwait.^[8]
• Boats were used between 4000BCE-3000BCE in Sumer,^[9] ancient Egypt^[10] and in the Indian Ocean.^[9]
• There is evidence of camel pulled wheeled vehicles about 3000–4000 BCE.^[11]
• The earliest evidence of a wagonway, a predecessor of the railway, found so far was the 6 to 8.5 km long Diolkos wagonway, which transported boats across the Isthmus of Corinth in Greece since around 600 BC.^{[12][13][14][15][16]} Wheeled vehicles pulled by men and animals ran in grooves in limestone, which provided the track element, preventing the wagons from leaving the intended route.^[16]

• Railways began reappearing in Europe after the Dark Ages. The earliest known record of a railway in Europe from this period is a stained-glass window in the Minster of Freiburg im Breisgau dating from around 1350.^[17]

• In 1515, Cardinal Matthäus Lang wrote a description of the Reisszug, a funicular railway at the Hohensalzburg Castle in Austria. The line originally used wooden rails and a hemp haulage rope, and was operated by human or animal power, through a treadwheel.^[18][19]

• 1769 Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot is often credited with building the first self-propelled mechanical vehicle or automobile in about 1769, by adapting an existing horse-drawn vehicle, this claim is disputed by some^{[citation needed]}, who doubt Cugnot's three-wheeler ever ran or was stable.

• In Russia, in the 1780s, Ivan Kulibin developed a human-pedalled, three-wheeled carriage with modern features such as a flywheel, brake, gear box, and bearings; however, it was not developed further.^[20]

• 1783 Montgolfier brothers first Balloon vehicle

• 1801 Richard Trevithick built and demonstrated his Puffing Devil road locomotive, believed by many to be the first demonstration of a steam-powered road vehicle, although it was unable to maintain sufficient steam pressure for long periods, and would have been of little practical use.

• 1817 push bikes draisines, or hobby horses were the first human means of transport to make use of the two-wheeler principle, the draisine (or Laufmaschine, "running machine"), invented by the German Baron Karl von Drais, is regarded as the forerunner of the modern bicycle (and motorcycle). It was introduced by Drais to the public in Mannheim in summer 1817.^[21]

• 1885 Otto Lilienthal began experimental gliding, and achieved the first sustained, controlled, reproducible flights.

• 1903 Wright brothers flew the first controlled, powered aircraft

• 1907 First helicopters Gyroplane no.1 (tethered) and Cornu helicopter (free flight)^[22]

• 1928 Opel RAK.1 rocket car

• 1929 Opel RAK.1 rocket glider

• 1961 Vostok vehicle carried first man (Yuri Gagarin) into space

• 1969 Apollo Program first manned vehicle lands on the moon

Types of vehicles

Air

• Fixed-wing aircraft
• Ground effect vehicle
• Helicopter
• Balloon
• Airship

Land

Space

• Launch escape capsule
• Rocket
• Spacecraft

Water surface

Underwater

• More types of vehicles...

Legislation

Motor vehicle and trailer categories are defined according to the following international classification:^[23]

• Category M: passenger vehicles.
• Category N: motor vehicles for the carriage of goods.
• Category O: trailers and semi-trailers.

European Union

In the European Union the classifications for vehicle types are defined by:^[24]

• Commission Directive 2001/116/EC of 20 December 2001, adapting to technical progress Council Directive 70/156/EEC on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the type-approval of motor vehicles and their trailers^[25]
• Directive 2002/24/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 March 2002 relating to the type-approval of two or three-wheeled motor vehicles and repealing Council Directive 92/61/EEC

European Community, is based on the Community's WVTA (whole vehicle type-approval) system. Under this system, manufacturers can obtain certification for a vehicle type in one Member State if it meets the EC technical requirements and then market it EU-wide with no need for further tests. Total technical harmonization already has been achieved in three vehicle categories (passenger cars, motorcycles, and tractors) and soon will be extended to other vehicle categories (coaches and utility vehicles). It is essential that European car manufacturers be ensured access to as large a market as possible.

While the Community type-approval system allows manufacturers to benefit fully from the opportunities offered by the internal market, worldwide technical harmonization in the context of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) offers them a market which extends beyond European borders.

See also

• Outline of vehicles
• Steering
• Vehicle acronyms and abbreviations
• Vehicle dynamics
• Vehicle metrics
• Vehicle propulsion

References

1. ^ "vehicle, n.", OED Online, Oxford University Press, November 2010
2. ^ Halsey, William D. (Editorial Director): MacMillan Contemporary Dictionary, page 1106. MacMillan Publishing, 1979. ISBN 0-02-080780-5
3. ^ ISO 3833:1977 Road vehicles - Types - Terms and definitions Webstore.anis.org
4. ^ "Oldest Boat Unearthed". China.org.cn. http://lanzhou.china.com.cn/english/travel/50131.htm. Retrieved 2008-05-05.
5. ^ McGrail, Sean (2001). Boats of the World. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. pp. 431. ISBN 0-19-814468-7.
6. ^ "Africa's Oldest Known Boat". wysinger.homestead.com. http://wysinger.homestead.com/canoe.html. Retrieved 2008-08-17.
7. ^ "8,000-year-old dug out canoe on show in Italy". Stone Pages Archeo News. http://www.stonepages.com/news/archives/001511.html. Retrieved 2008-08-17.
8. ^ Lawler, Andrew (June 7, 2002). "Report of Oldest Boat Hints at Early Trade Routes". Science (AAAS) 296 (5574): 1791–1792. doi:10.1126/science.296.5574.1791. PMID 12052936. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/296/5574/1791. Retrieved 2008-05-05.
9. ^ ^{a b} Denemark 2000, page 208
10. ^ McGrail, Sean (2001). Boats of the World. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. pp. 17–18. ISBN 0-19-814468-7.
11. ^ DSC.discovery.com
12. ^ Verdelis, Nikolaos: "Le diolkos de L'Isthme", Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique, Vol. 81 (1957), pp. 526–529 (526)
13. ^ Cook, R. M.: "Archaic Greek Trade: Three Conjectures 1. The Diolkos", The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 99 (1979), pp. 152–155 (152)
14. ^ Drijvers, J.W.: "Strabo VIII 2,1 (C335): Porthmeia and the Diolkos", Mnemosyne, Vol. 45 (1992), pp. 75–76 (75)
15. ^ Raepsaet, G. & Tolley, M.: "Le Diolkos de l’Isthme à Corinthe: son tracé, son fonctionnement", Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique, Vol. 117 (1993), pp. 233–261 (256)
16. ^ ^{a b} Lewis, M. J. T., "Railways in the Greek and Roman world", in Guy, A. / Rees, J. (eds), Early Railways. A Selection of Papers from the First International Early Railways Conference (2001), pp. 8–19 (11)
17. ^ Hylton, Stuart (2007). The Grand Experiment: The Birth of the Railway Age 1820–1845. Ian Allan Publishing.
18. ^ Kriechbaum, Reinhard (2004-05-15). "Die große Reise auf den Berg" (in German). der Tagespost. http://www.die-tagespost.de/Archiv/titel_anzeige.asp?ID=8916. Retrieved 2009-04-22.
19. ^ "Der Reiszug – Part 1 – Presentation". Funimag. http://www.funimag.com/funimag10/RESZUG01.HTM. Retrieved 2009-04-22.
20. ^ "Automobile Invention". Aboutmycar.com. http://www.aboutmycar.com/category/car_history/creation_history/automobile-invention-1122.htm. Retrieved 2008-10-27.
21. ^ "Canada Science and Technology Museum: Baron von Drais’ Bicycle". 2006. http://www.sciencetech.technomuses.ca/english/collection/cycles2.cfm. Retrieved 2006-12-23.
22. ^ Munson 1968
23. ^ ACEA.be
24. ^ Scadplus: Technical Harmonisation For Motor Vehicles
25. ^ [1] Commission Directive 2001/116/EC of 20 December 2001, adapting to technical progress Council Directive 70/156/EEC on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the type-approval of motor vehicles and their trailers

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