Vehicles, logistics and transport infrastructure
On January 29, 1886, Carl Benz patented the Patent-Motorwagen (patent DRP 37435), the first vehicle designed from the outset to be powered by an internal combustion engine. Its 0.75 hp single cylinder reached 16 km/h — the automobile was born.
On 26 April 1956, the converted tanker Ideal-X left Newark with 58 truck trailers on its deck. The loading cost dropped from $5.86/tonne to $0.16/tonne — a 97% reduction. This standardised metal box (TEU: 6.1 × 2.44 × 2.59 m) would make globalisation economically viable.
On October 1, 1908, the Ford Model T rolls off the Piquette Avenue plant in Detroit at a price of $850. Thanks to the moving assembly line (December 1, 1913), assembly time drops from 12 h 28 min to 1 h 33 min, and the price falls to $260 by 1925 — inventing mass production.
On October 8, 1829, the Rocket designed by George and Robert Stephenson wins the Rainhill Trials at 48 km/h hauling 13 tonnes — the locomotive that proved the viability of steam rail and founded modern transportation.
On 1 October 1964, nine days before the Tokyo Olympics, the Series 0 Shinkansen linked Tokyo to Osaka (515 km) in 4 hours at a commercial speed of 210 km/h. Over 60 years of operation: zero fatalities from collision or derailment, ~400 million passengers/year across all lines (~6.4 billion cumulative since 1964), average delay of 54 seconds.