Source for what? You mean the electric motor used for transportation before ICE?
https://www.eti.kit.edu/english/1376.php
"After many other more or less successful attempts with relatively weak rotating and reciprocating apparatus the German-speaking Prussian Moritz Jacobi created the first...
My point was that patents don't mean all that much. I think the wheel has been around a lot longer than the 1700's. The electric motor has been used in transportation for longer than the ICE. I suppose I should have been more clear.
The same thing happens in the shooting community when...