The Evolution of Mobility: From Two Legs to Horses to Electric Dreams

There are more solutions than obstacles. Nicolas Zart

A Journey Through Time: From Horses to Steam

This is the first part of a three-part mobility series.

From Horses to Steam Power, Leading to AAM

Thousands of years ago, humanity walked on two legs and relied on horses for transportation. Then, some shrewd observers realized that horses could carry more weight and travel greater distances. Thus, the domestication of horses began, or perhaps aliens shared this idea with us—you decide which theory fits best!

By then, a few even brighter souls must have sliced a ball and found that the slices made for wheels. We’re still not sure how they got that result to move a platform, but they did to the greatest satisfaction of our societies globally for centuries. As centuries passed, people from Ancient Greece went to the far reaches of Egypt to learn ancient technologies and philosophies gathered from the four corners of the Earth. One of the things those Greecians brought back was the wonders of water vapor and its power potential. This too might have had aliens involved. You are still free to choose your conspiracy theory. Still, a crude steam engine prototype showed potential but wouldn’t be developed for hundreds of years.

Humans known for not leaving things as is, decided it was time for more efficiency, and thus the steam engine was born from the spoils of ancient Egyptian sciences. It is also hypothesized that aliens gave the blueprints for building spaceships to the early Vedas. Perhaps there is something to these wild theories, but we’ll let you do great gymnastics in your free time. For now, we want to concentrate on historical facts, not theories. It wasn’t until several centuries later that wooden wheels would roll on wooden rails with steam engines. Wood was eventually replaced by metal wheels on metal rails further reducing friction. This steam propulsion system was extended to cars.

I’ve had the privilege of riding in a reproduction of a steam Serpolet. You can read more here on this heroic era of automotive racing. The Serpolet was part of late 1980 steam cars with hundreds of coiled copper tubes that won several speed races. All I can say is these folks racing these cars were made of a different cloth than we are.

The Railroad Revolution: Steam Power’s Legacy

The railroad and locomotive revolutionized mobility thanks to the mighty steam engine. It also relegated tired horses to the stables. None of this was more obvious than in San Francisco who took particular pity on these horses braving steep hills to bring their human passenger around town. The steam engine to this day still stands as the most power-dense motor.

Magnetism Research Moved Mountain and Spawned Electric Mobility

It has also been theorized that the research on magnetism that led to the electric motors could have been inspired by aliens. On that topic, many experts tend to disagree since having traveled through quantum space, leaving behind the steam engine seems menial. But I digress… This power-dense mode of propulsion allowed humans to move thousands of tons of cargo over vast distances using steam. However, the downside was the constant need to refill water tanks and dirty coal tenders. Meanwhile, the Industrial Revolution replaced manpower with steam-powered machines, and curious minds turned their attention to the mysteries of magnetism.

Stay tuned as we uncover what those humans did to further efficiency eventually leading us to advanced air mobility in part two next.