The invention of the car made a major change in the way people got around. We discover that the history of the car goes back to Leonardo and that electric cars have been around for ages! James brings you his research on the history of electric cars, and you'll hear his best car jokes!

How are some questions to see how well you understood today’s episode:

1. Over 500 years ago, who made designs for a mechanical, wind-up car?
2. What was built first: a steam-powered car or the Eiffel Tower?
3. In 1885 who built the first car powered by a gasoline or petrol engine?
4. Who made assembly lines that could build lots of cars quickly?
5. Until 1900, what would you move to steer a car?
6. When was the first fully electric car that could go over 100 kilometres per hour built?

Read industry reviews of Dad’s World War II novels, A Chance Kill and The Slightest Chance, at paulletters.com. Available on Kindle, as well as in paperback. Dad’s first wartime novel, A Chance Kill, is a love-story/thriller based on real events in Poland, Paris, London and Prague. The Slightest Chance follows the remarkable true story of the only escape from Japanese imprisonment by a Western woman during World War II.

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We’ll be back on the first Monday of next month!

Podcast cover art by Molly Austin

All instrumental music is from https://filmmusic.io and composed by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Sound effects used under RemArc Licence. Copyright 2021 © BBC