In August 1869, Mary Ward badly needed a vacation. She was a slender, sharp featured 42-year-old with

a round nose and dark hair that covered her ears. As an active naturalist in astronomer,

she'd been laboring hard to carve out a place for herself in the overwhelmingly male world

of Victorian science. She was also raising eight children more or less by herself,

which was kind of ridiculous even by 19th century Irish standards. So just when she was

nearing her breaking point, Mary Ward took off to visit her cousin's castle, located in the

Irish Midlands west of Doppel. On the journey, her naturalist's eye must have appreciated the

gorgeous rolling green hills surrounding the castle. And while the Irish skies are not exactly

optimal for astronomy, too many cloudy nights, she must have tangled with excitement to know that

the castle could boast of one of the largest telescopes in the world, which she was eager to

explore. The castle also had, believe it or not, a steam-powered automobile.

In the 1860s, automobiles were basically giant toys. People belt them in their garages just

because they could, for the sport of it. A little more seriously, people were also tinkering with

new types of engines and exploring the bounds of the field of thermodynamics, the same field that

was transforming Great Britain and ushering in the Industrial Revolution. So when someone at the

castle suggested taking this homemade steam gelopy out for a spin, a scientist like Mary Ward

leapt at the opportunity. Imagine the scene, a rare sunshiny day, a town green, people whistling and

clapping as the cars zoomed by. Death was likely the furthest thing from their minds.

But however much people treated cars as toys back then, cars were nevertheless dangerous toys.

And sadly, the group's little lark ended with Mary Ward being crushed under its wheels.

This gave the 42-year-old scientist the dubious distinction of being the very first automobile

fatality in history. Cutting short would might have been, if not for a demanding

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