One of the first moving models that can practically be attributed to cars is the toy of Ferdinand Verbist, a Flemish Jesuit. During the Qing Dynasty, he was a missionary in China, was a close friend of the Kangxi Emperor. The emperor often consulted with Verbiest on a variety of issues related to the sciences. In China, Ferdinand Verbiest was known as Nan Huairen.
The most unusual and interesting invention of Nan Huairen was undoubtedly the model of a small self-propelled cart with a steam drive of an unusual design. Before the invention of the steam engine, as we know it, was still quite a long way away, so Verbiest used the principle of eolipil in order to make the wheels turn. By the way, it was Verbist who was the first to use the term "motor" in today's sense.
Ferdinand conducted many experiments with steam. And around 1672, for his friend the Emperor Kangxi, he constructed a funny car. It is difficult to call a toy a machine, since it was not used to transport goods or passengers. In length, it was only about sixty-five cm, and was a cart on four wheels, with a spherical boiler mounted on top. The fifth wheel was attached to the front and allowed the cart to turn.
Turbina di Verbiest - replica of a steam car model manufactured by the Italian company Brumm.
The fire under the cauldron was lit in a special basket. The boiler was equipped with a nozzle from which steam escaped and rotated the blades of an open steam turbine, and that, through a gear transmission, transmitted force to the wheels. It seems like a miracle for the time, but Ferdinand worked with some of the finest Chinese metalworkers. And they had rich experience in making highly accurate astronomical instruments for Nan Huairen.
