Many have accredited the Benz Patent Motorwagen with being the first patented automobile, an exercise in engineering that spawned what I do for a living. But during the final years of the 19th century, the “horseless carriage” was something only the bourgeoisie could attain. Fast forward twenty years and on the other side of the Atlantic ocean, industrialist Henry Ford revolutionised the automotive world with the production of the Model T – a model that continued in various forms and shapes until 1929. More importantly, it brought the dream of the horseless carriage to the middle class masses of North America, and later, the world.
