That was my wife. Fearless and courageous, she hoisted up new sails of hope. Less than a month after leaving Gasmotorenfabrik Mannheim, Carl Benz was back in business. Benz had used coal gas to power his now very successful stationary engines and was wondering how to fuel his small, motorwagen engine, when the solution was provided by a local fire in Mannheim. It began when a bowl of benzene being used to clean work gloves was ignited by a spark.
Benz reasoned that this highly volatile fluid could work in an engine, if the explosion could be controlled, and a proper spark provided to ignite it. His solution was a battery and trembler coil system with a spark plug which he designed himself. Unknown to Benz, Daimler and Maybach had come to this same conclusion. Benz, as well as his partners, Rose and Esslinger, was an avid bicyclist and though he had given the idea a great deal of thought, considering both four and three-wheeled designs for his motorwagen, he never considered the horse-drawn carriage as a basis for his design.
A tricycle configuration with power transferred to the rear wheels by a chain, appeared more logical, less complicated, lighter and easier to steer. This was the direction he chose when his concept for the motorwagen began to take shape in A two-stroke engine developing approximately two-thirds of a horsepower at rpm, was placed on its side at the rear of the three-wheeler, with the immense flywheel running horizontally.
The initial trial was in the fall, whereupon the very first motorized wagon built by Carl Benz stalled and when restarted proceeded to snap the drive chain! After making some minor improvements he was ready for another test run a few weeks later. Sitting proudly at the tiller, and with Bertha at his side this time, the engine was started by one of his assistants spinning the flywheel, and after engaging the chain drive Carl Benz proceeded to drive the Motorwagen straight into the brick wall of his shop, making this not only the first but shortest road test in history.
His next tests were conducted with his son Eugene running alongside the motorwagen carrying a can of gasoline. It seemed the inventor had yet to create the first gas tank.
That done, and the patent received in January, Benz set out in July to make the motorwagen a household word. He had a long road ahead of him. Still in the developmental stages, Benz was hesitant to begin production of his new Patent Motorwagen.
His testing had been confined to the road and yard surrounding his workshop. With her two sons, Eugen and Richard, she set out at dawn and made the trip in a single day. They stopped in Heidelberg for a snack and then in Wiesloch at an apothecary to fill the radiator and purchase benzene for the fuel tank. On the road they encountered two mechanical problems, which Bertha tackled with feminine ingenuity. A clogged fuel line was cleared with her hatpin, and when an ignition wire short-circuited she made an insulator out of one of her garters!
The only other problem was the brake block, which she had fitted with a new piece of leather by a farrier in Bauschlott. They arrived in Pforzheim just as the sun was setting.
So the first step had been taken. Daimler-Benz went on to sell Mercedes-Benz vehicles the name Mercedes came from the daughter of a man who'd raced and sold Daimler automobiles. Though they lived in Germany at the same time and shared similar interests, Benz and Daimler hadn't interacted before Daimler died in Benz later stated , "I never spoke to Daimler in all my life. Once I saw him in Berlin, from a distance.
As I approached — I would have liked to have made his acquaintance — he disappeared in the crowd. Associates sometimes derided Benz's focus on making a motorized vehicle, which they considered an endeavor without potential.
Yet Bertha provided both financial and emotional support for his work. In his memoir, Benz wrote , "Only one person stood by me during those times when I was heading towards the abyss. That was my wife. It was her courage that enabled me to find new hope. It was also Bertha who demonstrated the feasibility of Benz's vehicle as a mode of transportation when she took it on a mile drive in August Bertha made the eight-miles-per-hour journey, accompanied by her two older children, in Model No.
Her actions garnered positive attention and publicity for the motorcar. Benz himself only learned of his wife's plans after she had made the drive. Benz and Bertha had five children: Eugen b. We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us! Subscribe to the Biography newsletter to receive stories about the people who shaped our world and the stories that shaped their lives.
German philosopher and revolutionary socialist Karl Marx published 'The Communist Manifesto' and 'Das Kapital,' anticapitalist works that form the basis of Marxism. It was Carl Benz who had the double-pivot steering system patented in , thereby solving one of the most urgent problems of the automobile.
The first Benz with this steering system was the three-hp 2. This was the birth of the horizontally-opposed piston engine. Always installed at the rear by Benz until , this unit generated up to 16 hp 12 kW in various versions. From the first automobile to electric cars: The Daimler AG's history. We want to make our website more user-friendly and continuously improve it. If you continue to use the website, you agree to the use of cookies.
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