The Ford Quadricycle was the first vehicle developed by

Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that ...

. Ford's first car was a simple frame with a gas-powered engine and four bicycle wheels mounted on it. The earliest cars were hand built, one by one, and very expensive. The peculiar machines were seen as toys for the rich. In the 1890s, the "horseless carriage" was a relatively new idea, with no one having a fixed, universal idea of what a car should look like or how it should work. Most of the first car builders were inventors, rather than businessmen, working with their imaginations and the parts they had on hand. Thus, the invention of the Quadricycle marks an important innovation as a proto-automobile that would lay the foundation for the future, with more practical designs to follow. On June 4, 1896, in a tiny workshop behind his home on 58 Bagley Avenue, Detroit,Clymer, Floyd. ''Treasury of Early American Automobiles, 1877–1925'' (New York: Bonanza Books, 1950), p.58. where the Michigan Building now stands, Ford put the finishing touches on his pure ethanol-powered motor. After more than two years of experimentation, Ford, at the age of 32, had completed his first experimental

automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarde ...

. He dubbed his creation the "Quadricycle," so named because it ran on four bicycle tires, and because of the means through which the engine drove the back wheels.Brinkley, David, ''Wheels for the World: Henry Ford, His Company, and a Century of Progress'', (New York: Penguin Group, 2003), p.22 The success of the little vehicle led to the founding of the Detroit Automobile Company in 1899, followed by the

Henry Ford Company The Henry Ford Company was an automobile manufacturer active from 1901 to 1902. Named for Henry Ford, it was his second company after the Detroit Automobile Company, which had been founded in 1899. The Henry Ford Company was founded November 190 ...

in 1901 and then later the

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...

in 1903.The Showroom of Automotive History: 1896 Quadricycle
The two cylinder engine could produce 4 horsepower.1896 Ford Quadricycle
RemarkableCars.com The Quadricycle was driven by a chain. The transmission had only two gears (first for up to , 2nd for up to ), but did not have a reverse gear. The

tiller A tiller or till is a lever used to steer a vehicle. The mechanism is primarily used in watercraft, where it is attached to an outboard motor, rudder post or stock to provide leverage in the form of torque for the helmsman to turn the rudder. ...

-steered machine had wire wheels and a fuel tank under the seat. Ford test drove it on June 4, 1896, after various test drives, achieving a top speed of . Ford would later go on to found the Ford Motor Company and become one of the world's richest men. The original Quadricycle resides at

The Henry Ford Museum The Henry Ford (also known as the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and Greenfield Village, and as the Edison Institute) is a history museum complex in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, Michigan, United States. The museum collection contains ...

in Dearborn, Michigan.

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{{Commons category, Ford Quadricycle, position=left Vehicles introduced in 1896

First car made by manufacturer Cars powered by boxer engines Michigan State Historic Sites in Wayne County, Michigan

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