Goodyear claimed that he discovered vulcanization in 1839, but did not patent the invention until June 15, 1844 – Wikipedia Also, if you wiki automobiles you’ll see a number of inventions, depending on what you think qualifies the answer changes. :) François Isaac de Rivaz, a Swiss inventor, designed the first internal combustion engine, in 1806, which was fueled by a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen and used it to develop the world’s first vehicle, albeit rudimentary, to be powered by such an engine. – Wikipedia I’m going with automobile. Some dates are as far back as the 1600s.