In 1672, a Flemish missionary in China, Ferdinand Verbist, designed a steam engine that could propel a toy self-propelled apparatus. The first 60 cm of the way the prototype overcame in 1679 in the gardens of the Imperial Palace in Beijing and caused great admiration of the ruler. This car did not carry passengers, but it got into history as the first car with steam engine (pictured is Ferdinand Verbist's steam engine in 1678).

The story of the invention of the steam engine begins in the first century AD in Egypt. Heron Alexandrian described a device called "aeolipil". It was a ball filled with boiling water, with nozzles fixed at it, bent at right angles. The ball rotated under the action of jet forces caused by steam exiting the nozzles.

The real steam turbine was invented in the 16th century by the Arab philosopher, astronomer and engineer Tagi al-Din. This engine had the appearance of a spindle equipped with vanes rotating under pressure of the steam directed at them. A similar device was proposed by the Italian engineer Giovanni Branco in 1629. The main disadvantage of these inventions was the high energy consumption due to the scattering of steam flows, so they did not find practical use.