Invented by Arthur Gibson, the Autoped self-propelled scooter was granted a US patent in 1916 which was assigned to the Autoped Company of America, New York, NY. It was powered by a 155 cc, single cylinder, air cooled, gasoline engine. The company manufactured the scooters from 1915 to 1922 and a licence was issued to Krupp for manufacture in Germany. The Autoped had a top speed of 20 mph (32 kph.) It weighed 110 pounds (50 Kg) and sold for $110.
The chariot was not invented by the Egyptians, but they probably discovered it in their wars with the Hyksos in the Nile Delta region around 1,500 BCE. These chariots were heavy and cumbersome to manoeuvre, so the Egyptian engineers and military planners set out to perfect them. They made them much lighter (two soldiers could easily carry one), stronger, faster and more stable. The combat chariots carried a crew of two; a driver and an archer/spear carrier.
Once refined this design stayed in service for three hundred years and proved to be the decisive weapon system in the expansion of the Egyptian empire from northern Sudan to the southern part of Turkey, including present day Syria, Lebanon and Israel in between. The great military leader, Pharaoh Thutmose III used thousands of them in 17 campaigns in the Middle East.
This model is based on chariots found in the in the tomb of King Tutankhamen and described in detail in the PBS NOVA video “Building Pharaoh’s Chariot” on YouTube.
