What kind of vehicles were there in the 19th century?

Answer 1

Land-based vehicles at the beginning of the 19th Century were nearly all horse-drawn; coaches, private carriages, farm carts, freight waggons, light 2-wheeled chaises and so on. Steam-driven road coaches were in early development in Britain and parts of the Continent, and by the end of the Georgian era were in regular service in and around major cities. 'Hobby-horse' bicycles were popular with men- these were non-chain driven bikes that were propelled by the rider skimming their feet along the ground.

The first successful public trial of a railway locomotive took place in South Wales in 1804; by the 1830s, a rail network was developing across Britain and France, and by mid-Victorian times had been established as a main mode of transport across the developed world. By the end of the 19th Century, most countries had a rail network, and steam railways were the main form of mass transport for both passengers, freight and military purposes. The American railway network played a major role in troop and supply transport during the US Civil War of 1862-65, and mechanised railways led to the phasing out of mail coaches in Britain & Europe by the end of the 1860s (although in the USA, stagecoaches continued to serve as links to the outside world for rural communities up until Edwardian times). Pedal-driven bicycles & tricycles began appearing also in the 1860s, with the famous Penny Farthing being launched in 1875, and chain-driven bikes making their debut not long after that. Motor cars were under development throughout the 19th Century in some form or another, with the first really successful model (a Daimler) appearing in 1875, and the first production model (the Benz 3-wheeler) launched in 1885. By the end of the 19th Century, cars were in production across Britain, Europe and the USA, and although still a rare sight on the roads, were no longer a novelty.

Ships in the first half of the 19th Century were nearly all sailing vessels, although from the 1830s onwards they began to have iron rather than wooden hulls. Steamships, or sail-steam combinations, appeared at around the same time (although smaller river craft had been steam-driven before then)- initially, these were paddle driven, but by the 1850s the screw propeller began to replace the paddle wheel. By this decade, regular trans-Atlantic steam services were running, and by the 1890s sail was very much in decline, with most of the world's navies having steam or oil-fired fleets of 'ironclads'. Canal networks were in wide use for freight traffic across Britain and Europe, with sailing barges used on the bigger canals and horse-drawn ones on the smaller networks- barges began to be steam-powered in the 1880s.

Petrol-driven aeroplanes did not appear until Edwardian times, but balloons were widely used throughout the 19th Century for pleasure flights, military reconnaisance, and by explorers and scientists. Steam-powered dirigibles began to appear in the 1870s, and by the 1890s had petrol engines. Aeronautical engineers were constantly experimenting with gliders, for use as personal transport.