The story of the Benz Patent Motorwagen – the start of the automobile era

I’ve long been fascinated by the unusual automobile model of the 1886 Benz car which we carry in the Ship Models Online catalog.  I thought it was time to find out just how this vehicle came into being.  Here’s the story of the Benz Patent Motorwagen.

Karl Benz was an engineer, designer and inventor who is credited with developing the first practical motorcar.  His Motorwagen grew out of a fascination with internal combustion engines and a love of bicycles.  The Motorwagen’s wire spocked wheels were dramatically different from other self powered vehicles of the time and bear testimony to Karl’s love of the bicycle.  This story, however, is as much about Karl’s wife, Bertha, her imagination and initiative, as it is about Karl.

Karl Benz in the early 1900s

Karl was born in 1944 in a small section of what is now Karlsruhe, Germany.  He was an exceptional student and graduated from the University of Karlsruhe with a degree in mechanical engineering at the age of 19.  It was during his student years riding a bicycle to the University that he became enthralled with the idea of a “horseless carriage”.  He spent the next seven years working for a variety of companies and gaining experience, but not a calling.

Next Karl and an associate went into partnership to form the Iron Foundry and Mechanical Workshop in Mannheim.  His partner, however, was lacking in discipline and business skills.  Karl’s fiancée, Bertha Ringer, bought out his partner with part of her dowry.  They were married a few month’s later.  Under Karl’s leadership the factory a developed new, reliable two stroke gasoline engine.  He continued to innovate around his engine and patented a speed regulation system, an ignition system using sparks from a battery, the spark plug, the carburetor, the clutch, the gear shift and the water radiator cooling system.

Benz needed to secure capital to continue his innovations.  The banks forced him into an associated with a photographer and a cheese merchant which turned out to be totally unsatisfactory for Karl.  He then went into partnership with the owners of a bicycle repair shop in Mannheim to form a new company producing industrial machines.  This company quickly grew to 25 employees.

As the demands from this new business became lighter, Karl turned to the development of the vision of his college days.  He used much of the bicycles technology to develop an automobile.  It featured wire spocks instead of wood, Karl’s newly designed four stroke engine, and a chain drive.  The Benz Patent Motorwagen was granted a patent in 1886.  Benz continued to modify and improve the Motorwagen and took it to the 1887 Paris Expo.

Commercial sales began in 1888.  The second customer, a Parisian bicycle manufacturer, had a previous relationship with Benz and became licensed to sell the new Motorwagen.  Consequently, most of the initial sales were in Paris.

Bertha Ringer in 1871 the year

prior to her marriage to Karl Benz 

In 1888 Bertha Benz felt the need to push Karl into more aggressive commercial development of his invention.  So she conspired with two of their sons to field test the Motorwagen.  Unbeknownst to Karl, they took one of the two completed models on a round trip from Mannheim to Pforzheim some 65 miles away.  They encountered numerous problems along the way which Bertha ingeniously solved.  They stopped at pharmacies to get gasoline (it was sold as a cleaning solution), she cleared a clogged fuel line with a hatpin, she insulated a frayed ignition wire with her garter, she even developed the first brake pad by having a shoemaker attach leather to the brakes.  Because of this trip Karl finally realized that they had a finished product.  The Motorwagan was a dazzling success in Munich and the automobile had won a place in the public's heart.  Today the Bertha Benz Memorial Route follows the path of this trip.  It is generally recognized as the world's oldest automobile road.

Of course the story doesn’t end there.  It was just beginning.  One rather interesting item deserves further discussion.  In 1926 the Benz manufacturing company merged with Karl’s primary competition the Daimler motor works (DMG).  In 1902 DMG’s was commissioned to build a new engine by Emil Jellinek who insisted that the new engine be named after his daughter, Mercedes.  Today we still remember her when we see the long list of Mercedes-Benz automobiles.

                                                                  Carl and Bertha Benz 

                                                                  in a Benz Motorwagen in 1914

Ship Models Online offers a beautiful automobile model of the original 1886 Benz Motorwagen.  Displaying this model in your home or office will remind you and your friends just how far the era of the automobile has come in little more than 125 years.