Cecilia Bertha Benz is a unique and great woman. What is she famous for? When was Bertha Benz born? We will talk about this further.
Bertha Bens was born on May 3, 1849 in the family of Carl Friedrich Ringer, a carpenter. She was a very pretty young girl of German nationality. And her husband, Karl Benz, was a famous German pioneer of the world automotive industry. The popularity of this woman is that she made the world's first rally. Thanks to Berta, we are currently enjoying different kinds of cars and seeing traffic jams.
Marriage
When she was only 23 years old, on May 20, 1878, she successfully married Karl Benz. A chance acquaintance of a beautiful couple happened precisely at a meeting between Karl and his partners, where the topic of a new project in the scientific field was discussed. Karl was able to captivate the girl with his story, so much so that Bertha instantly canceled her engagement to Wilhelm, despite all the excuses of her father. Carl fell in love with the girl. They immediately becamemeet. The couple soon became husband and wife. This marriage lasted for the rest of his life. Bertha Benz and her husband raised five beautiful children.
Important help decision
Bertha Benz, whose photo you have the opportunity to see in the article, has always helped her husband in his affairs, supported both morally and financially. Even before the wedding, Karl's organization suffered huge financial losses. Bertha, not lost, decides to help her future husband, and gives him all her dowry, accumulated by her father. These funds helped Karl a lot to design a new engine. But the money quickly ran out, as the carpenter's savings, unfortunately, were not great. At that time, two boys had already appeared in the family: Eugen and Richard. The biography of Bertha Benz was not the most joyful during this period. She made meals out of almost nothing. The family was starving. The woman held on as best she could. Karl has been actively and diligently working on his new projects all this time.
Husband's first car
In the end, their joint efforts did not go unnoticed. In 1885, Karl created the so-called "self-propelled carriage". She had a single-cylinder engine with the power equivalent to the strength of one horse. The weight of such an engine was only 60 kg. At that time it was very little. Take the Deutz engine for comparison - its weight was 660 kg.
At that time, people had different attitudes towards any discoveries in science and technology. But, despite the ridicule of the surrounding residents, Karl continued to workon their projects, and by 1988 he had produced several more similar machines. They were different from the first model and were much better in every way. One of them was a convertible (a car with an awning on top, which served as a good shelter from rain or other bad weather).
But all projects failed, there was no demand for such developments. Residents viewed the technology with caution and contempt and wondered: “Why build self-propelled motor carriages when there are horses on the streets?”
The journey of Bertha and her sons in the first car
Bertha Benz, whose personal life has developed in the best possible way, looked at everything that was happening primarily with her female gaze, realizing that any work needs a certain demonstration. People needed to be able to convey and show the advantages of the car. To prove that such transport is much better than a regular horse-drawn carriage.
Based on her reasoning, on May 5, 1988, Bertha makes a fateful decision. Without notifying her husband about her idea, she takes his car and goes on a road trip with her two sons. Behind the wheel was the eldest, 15-year-old son Eugen. They went to Pforzheim, the city where Bertina's parents lived. The speed of movement was about 15 km / h. The approximate distance traveled in a day was about 106 kilometers.
During the trip, forced stops were made to buy gasoline in pharmacies, it was sold there as a cleaning agent called "Nagroin". This liquid at that timewas used as fuel. The sale was carried out in very small bottles.
Road Adventures
During the trip there were very interesting road adventures. The initial cause of the breakdown was the brakes. When the car was driving at high speed down the road, and even before the turn, the brakes smoked, or rather leather pads. The children were very frightened, but Bertha was not at a loss again. Her status as the wife of an auto designer played here, and at that moment she shouted: “Everyone make a tilt to the side of the turn!” With the right decision, they avoided a car accident. New brake pads were purchased from a shoemaker in a nearby village.
The next failure on the trip was the metal chain, which stretched during the trip. This problem was solved by one of the village blacksmiths. Berta did not waste a second, while the stretched chain was being repaired, she organized a mini-presentation of the miracle of technology to the surrounding crowd, emphasizing all the best qualities of the machine. The ladies present were very jealous of Bertha, as they also really wanted to ride on such a cart. It can be emphasized that Bertha Benz's speech made a great impression on the people, as everything was clearly presented and shown.
An interesting fact is that with the help of her hair clip, Bertha was able to fix a gas line that became clogged during the trip.
But that's not all. When an electrical breakdown of a live wire occurred, Berta, using a hosierygarters made insulation in the ignition system.
Thus, an interesting, exciting and useful journey was made for Bertha and her children to Pforzheim from Mannheim. They wrote about their arrival in a telegram to her husband, who by that time was already on his nerves and was very worried about his family, not even imagining what could happen to them.
Car Upgrade
Karl's sons completed the car model: they made lights for night-time travel, added a second gear and increased the number of revolutions. All this was thought out as a result of this test trip to my grandmother.
In the end, we can conclude that if it were not for Karl's wise and risky wife, Bertha Benz, the created car model would have remained just as a layout, like many other similar inventions. And only decades later, all the saved achievements in science acquired great meaning.
First orders
Bertha Benz, a real motorist, immediately thought of the meaning of such a car: it is an easy and fast movement of people, as well as goods without much physical effort. All over the world there have been changes thanks to an ordinary German girl, a carpenter's daughter.
The trip impressed the people very much, and after a while Karl Benz began to receive orders to create more and more new cars. Approximately 25 cars Carl sold in 1893. These were cars of the Motorwagen type (which means "motor crew" in German), which are three-wheeled vehicles,designed for two people only. Their approximate speed was about 16 km per hour. Such a machine was started using electric ignition, which took its energy from a galvanic battery. The fuel, as before, was "Nagroin". The entire engine was put into operation only after the driver manually revs the flywheel. And instead of the steering wheel at that time, a steering lever was installed.
Soon Karl Benz developed an improved Velo.
Family comfort
The wife no longer had to get involved in her husband's affairs. In total, she did this twice in her life. The first, when she gave away all her savings, and the second - a risky "advertising" trip on an unknown technique at that time. Berta spent the rest of her life taking care of the comforts of home. The family business was established and all financial difficulties were resolved.
Death
In 1944, the great woman passed away. She was 95 years old. She outlived her husband by 15 years. In the city of Pforzheim, Rene Dantes installed a sculpture in honor of Bertha and her long journey.
Bertha Benz: interesting facts
An interesting fact was the name of the track in honor of B. Benz. In 1888, a woman made her great journey along it, which became a huge event in the life of the Benz family. In 2008, in February, this route was recognized as a monument to the history of industry in Germany.
In 2011, the German director Til Endemann, taking the joint autobiography of Karl and Bertha Benz as a plot,made a feature film. It was presented to the viewer on the 125th anniversary of the appearance of the car. It was viewed by about 4.5 million viewers.
Today we can no longer imagine our life without vehicles, and it's all thanks to the great woman Bertha Benz and her husband Carl.
