'I believe in the horse, the automobile is just a temporary phenomenon', was the opinion of Germany's last Kaiser, Wilhelm II, when cars first arrived on the scene. Nevertheless not only did he become a car fanatic, 125 years after Carl Benz registered his invention of a 'motor carriage' in Mannheim on January 29th 1886 this 'temporary phenomenon' shows no sign of going away.
With its three wheels invention Patent Number 37435 was described as a 'Tricycle - vehicle powered by a gas engine', and, after it had been started by a crank, its internal combustion engine could produce 2.5 horsepower, which gave it a top speed of 18 km/h, 11.2 mph. The 'horseless carriage' was offered for sale to the public from July, 1886.
The creation of mechanical engineer, and later founder of the company that became Mercedes Benz, Carl Benz, it is considered to be the world's very first modern automobile. Despite predecessors created by various inventors across Europe, some dated back as far as the 17th century which were steam-driven or electrically-powered, while Stuttgart Gunmaker Gottlieb Daimler independently created a four wheel vehicle, resembling a horse drawn cab, not long after Benz had patented his own invention.
Born the son of an engine driver in Karlsruhe on 25th November, 1844 Carl Benz stated in his memoirs how much of his success was owed to his wife Bertha who married him in July 1872, and with whom he had five children. In 1871, and engaged but unmarried, she used a pre-payment of her dowry to invest in his business and became his business partner, enabling the research and development to go ahead.
Had they been married German law at the time would have prevented this, while as a 'married woman', despite having financed the process, it would not have been possible for her to patent the automobile.
Bertha Ringer, was born on 3 May 1849 in Pforzheim, Germany and she fell in love with the heavily in debt but visionary engineer, believing in his ideas and giving him unwavering support through some hard years, as he struggled to finally bring his idea of a vehicle powered by an internal combustion engine to life.
'Only one person was there beside me in the lifeboat in the days when everything was heading for ruin. That was my wife. Brave and courageous she hoisted the sails of hope', was how he described it in his memoirs.
The car had been patented and offered for sale nevertheless orders were slow coming in, not only Kaiser Wilhelm was skeptical about the horseless carriage, and Carl was again thinking of giving up the whole project. Bertha had other ideas however.
The first long-distance automobile journey in history
In early August 1888 Bertha Benz and her sons Richard and Eugen decided to make a spontaneous visit to Bertha's mother, who lived sixty miles to the south in Pforzheim on the edge of the Black Forest. However there was an ulterior
motive, she wanted to prove to Carl that his invention had a future and, when the public saw that the automobile worked and was reliable, it would become a success.She and the 13 and 15 year old boys decided to take one of the later model automobiles, the No.3, because it had room enough for three people, and without informing the authorities, or her husband because he would not have allowed them to take such a risk, they left early in the morning, rolling the vehicle down the driveway so they would make no noise, and had already traveled for several hours before it was noticed they had gone.
Streets as we know them did not exist, the countryside had field tracks with the ruts left by horse drawn carriages, which as the Model No. 3 had wooden wheels did not improve the quality of the ride, and there were no road signs so Bertha followed the railway tracks, while her boys and some local farmers had to push the car up a hill because its engine was not powerful enough to make it without help.
Everything about the experience was new to Bertha and her sons. When they heard from the sound it made that a chain had stretched, they had to go to the blacksmith's in Bruchsal to repair it, the fuel line became clogged and a hairpin was used to solve the problem, next the ignition broke which one of Bertha's garters fixed.
The brakes wore down so in Bauschlott a shoe repairer placed leather onto the brake shoes, making the first brake lining, and while he was working she sent a telegram to her husband and let him know she, the boys and 'his baby' were fine.
No one had made this journey before so they had underestimated the fuel needed, and as filling stations had not been invented they stopped at 'The World's First Filling Station', a pharmacy in Wiesloch,
to buy some 'Ligroin', a solvent used to power the engine.They arrived in Pforheim after dusk, luckily before dark as their 'Benz' didn't have headlights, and Bertha immediately informed her husband that their expedition had been a success.
It was a sensation. Taking a slightly different route on the return journey of what is now Baden-Wuerttemberg's Bertha Benz Memorial Route, to avoid the steep mountains, the road back was lined with people, some awestruck others frightened by the hissing and spitting horseless carriage, however this journey was the breakthrough that changed everything.
The Benz's faith in their invention had been rewarded and, thanks to a daring road trip by Bertha Benz and her two sons, for which she also was later given the first ever 'Drivers license', the automobile had 'arrived' and was now at the beginning if its own journey to success.
No. 3 Benz and modern Mercedes Benz, courtesy .de-Magazin Deutschland, www.magazin-deutschland.de - Bertha Benz, circa 1885, author unknown, source:ARD.de - Map of the Bertha Benz Memorial Route, made by SHolzhueter - Wiesloch Stadtapotheke, 'The First Filling Station in the World', photographer Rudolf Stricker - courtesy de.Wikipedia
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