Travis Hanson, age 10, of Newport, Wash., for his question:

WHO MADE THE FIRST MOTOR CAR?

The first road vehicles that could travel by themselves were powered by steam engines. A French army captain named Nicolas Joseph Cugnot built a three wheeled steam tractor in 1769 which was used for hauling a cannon. It could travel about three miles per hour but had to stop every 10 or 15 minutes to build up steam.

An English inventor named Richard Trevithick built a four wheeled steam wagon in 1801 that was used to carry passengers. And then in the early 1830s, Sir Goldsworthy Gurney built a six wheeled steam carriage that reached a speed of 15 miles per hour.

By the mid 1830s, English steam carriages were providing regular passenger service with some of the carriages able to hold as many as 22 persons.