In the second half of the 19th century, the question that the first car would soon appear was already resolved. It remained only unclear who would be the first in his invention. At the same time, several innovators were working in this direction. Some of them managed to get patents for their inventions in the same year. Who is considered the officially recognized creator of the car? This article will focus on Karl Benz.
Benz is a hereditary railwayman
There were several hereditary blacksmiths in the inventor's family. In past centuries, this profession obliged not only to create metal products, but also to be able to design them, that is, to be both an artisan and a mechanic, as well as an engineer and a technologist.
Karl Benz was the son of one of these blacksmiths. And thanks to the development of the railway in the German lands, Johann Georg Benz became a locomotive driver. However, this is what led to his death in the near future. Four months before birthCarl, his father caught a bad cold in the cockpit with open windows, because of which he died of pneumonia. The mother, who was a French immigrant, was engaged in the upbringing of the future inventor.
First lessons
After the misfortune that happened to his father, the mother could not allow her only son, Karl Benz, to connect his life with the railway. She saw him as a government official. But the young man was drawn to technology. So, at the Lyceum, he was fond of studying physics and chemistry, often stayed after school to work out in the school laboratory.
Passion led to photography, which gave him the opportunity to receive the first income needed by his family. Another occupation was clock repair. Over time, his mother allowed him to equip a workshop in the attic.
Technical education
All the son's hobbies convinced his mother that the position of an official is far from the best occupation for him. With her permission, Karl Benz entered the Polytechnic School. At that time, the educational institution was the scientific center of mechanical engineering in Germany. They were working on finding a new engine. It was supposed to be an alternative to the steam engine.
Karl Benz was infected with all the ideas that were associated with the creation of a powerful and compact engine.
Start your own business
After graduating from the Polytechnic School, which by that time had received the status of a university, the innovator got a job at a mechanical engineering plant. At that time, it was believed that the designer should first work as a locksmith for "hardening".
Karl Benz, whose biographyconsidered, began to work for twelve hours in a semi-dark workshop. After two years of exhausting work, having gained the necessary experience, he quit. For the next five years, Karl was a draftsman, a designer in mechanical engineering. During this time, he raised funds for his own business. Benz had a dream to create a self-propelled carriage.
A significant change in his life was the death of his mother and his acquaintance with the young Bertha Ringer. The girl was from a family of a we althy carpenter, which positively influenced the opening of her own business.
The engineer created his workshop together with A. Ritter in the city of Mannheim. The dream of creating his own vehicle did not leave Benz for a minute, but concern for the financial well-being of the family, which was growing, required a reduction in funds for design development.
First successes
For the sake of the success of his own business, Benz took risks and got into difficult situations financially. Once he was almost deprived of his own business with the land. To solve all the problems, it was necessary to create something meaningful. The couple saw a way out in the invention of the internal combustion engine.
However, this idea has long been in the air and in the minds of many engineers and inventors, so there was nothing surprising in the fact that N. Otto patented the engine earlier. However, this concerned a four-stroke engine, so the spouses directed their efforts to creating a two-stroke engine. Benz's future car was supposed to operate on combustible gas.
The engine was launched on New Year's Evenight of the outgoing 1878. Serial production began three years later at the Mannheim plant. In this enterprise, the innovator was very limited in his rights, so he left it and started everything from scratch with other partners. But new investors were in no hurry to invest in the creation of a car.
At the same time, Nikolaus Otto's patent was canceled, and innovators, including Benz, stepped up their own business in creating a four-stroke engine designed for automotive use.
Search for buyers
By the summer of 1886, a car was created and publicly tested, the creator of which was Karl Benz. The patent was signed six months before this event and received the number 37435. The motor ran on a mixture of air and gasoline vapor. The car itself moved on three wheels, because the problem of synchronized turning was never solved.
Despite a successful invention from a technical point of view and favorable press reviews, the motor cart was not a success with conservative Germans. The inventor had to advertise his offspring at various exhibitions, including in Munich and Paris.
Together with attempts to establish sales, Karl continued to improve the car. Six years later, the "motor wagon" consisted of four wheels, was supplemented by a two-stage transmission. New models of the Benz brand appeared. Sales grew, especially at the expense of France. Later, the cars of this company mastered the market of Europe, Russia, South America.
To the 20th centurythe history of the car did not stop, it began to gain more serious momentum, and Benz's business expanded.
The innovator died at the age of 84, passing his business to his sons, which he organized at the age of sixty in the city of Ladenburg.
Specifications of the first car
A German engineer built his car in secret because the issue of patents was crucial.
Key Features:
- total weight - 263 kg;
- 4-stroke engine weight 96kg;
- engine cooled with water;
- presence of one cylinder, clutch, neutral and forward gear in the transmission;
- three wheels;
- band brake;
- chain drive.
The famous trip of Bertha Benz with her sons
The inventor's wife played an important role in his life. She supported her husband in his endeavors both financially (father-in-law invested his money in the engine business and gave Bertha's dowry even before marriage) and morally. There is also a story (of a Benz car) about how a woman with her sons went on a trip of almost 110 km.
It happened in August 1888. The route passed from the city of Mannheim to Pfrozheim, where Bertha's mother lived. A few days later, the woman and children returned home in the same car.
During the trip, there were several difficulties that the spouse and children were able to cope on their own:
- a plot with a steepovercame the climb like this - one son got behind the wheel, and the mother and the second son pushed the car from behind;
- Broken leather drive belt patched up near Bruchsal by a local shoemaker;
- the role of broken insulation for the electric drive was performed by a stocking garter;
- the resulting plug in the fuel tube was cleaned with a simple hairpin.
The trip was a great publicity stunt, as it made it clear to a skeptical society that even a woman with children could drive a car, repairing minor breakdowns if necessary. The trip also made it possible to identify shortcomings in the operation of the car and eliminate them.
Bertha Benz is known as the first woman to drive. She got the right to drive the same year.
