Taking advantage of many previous inventions, Carl Benz succeeded in designing and building the world’s first practical vehicle powered by an internal combustion engine and not confined to railway tracks. His name is still associated with many of the most important innovations of the automotive industry.
With the growth of railroads during the early nineteenth century, many people naturally thought about the possibility of inventing a self-propelled road vehicle that would provide the flexible mobility of the horse-drawn carriage. Numerous engineers and amateur inventors devoted their time and talents to the realization of this dream. Although there are contradictory claims, most historians agree that Carl Benz’s innovative automobile was the first that was truly functional.
Before Benz, a few inventors developed self-propelled vehicles that utilized steam engines
Seeking an alternative to the steam engine, Étienne Lenoir
Carl Benz, the son of a railroad mechanic, began thinking about a “horseless carriage” during his high school years in Karlsruhe, Baden. He later wrote: “My favorite idea was to get the locomotive to run on the road. I wanted to release it from the fixity of its path.” While studying mechanical engineering at the Technical College of Karlsruhe during the early 1860’s, his science teacher, Ferdinand Redtenbacher
About 1877, as the first step in building an automobile, Benz concentrated on improving the internal combustion engine. Because Otto
By 1884, Benz had developed a satisfactory single-cylinder motor. He then began working to overcome the many engineering problems associated with designing a functional chassis. He decided to copy the design of the pedal tricycle, which did not require the complicated steering arrangement of a four-wheeled vehicle. He used large wire-spoked wheels and mounted the rear axle on metal springs. The small engine was set horizontally in order easily to connect the engine to the drive wheels by side chains. A large flywheel kept the power running smoothly. The transmission was based on the belt-and-pulley arrangement that Benz had often seen in factories.
By the spring of 1885, Benz had an automobile ready for testing. In the first trial, he drove around the factory yard. On the second trial, the car crashed into a brick wall (the world’s first automobile accident), but the damages were quickly repaired. By that summer, Benz had made numerous improvements to the vehicle and was able to drive it more than one-half mile at a speed of about seven and one-half miles per hour. In July, local newspapers for the first time described the new invention. On January 29, 1886, Benz obtained a patent on his automobile. Later that year, he was delighted to learn that Otto was losing his patent for the four-cycle engine, and Benz quickly adapted the more powerful engine for his automobile.
Benz was not the only person seriously attempting to develop a functional automobile at the time. During the early 1880’s, Gottlieb Daimler of Württemberg
In 1887, Benz demonstrated his invention at the Paris Exposition, but it did not attract a great deal of attention. Nevertheless, that same year the company sold its first car to Émile Roger, owner of a mechanical workshop in Paris, France. In the summer of 1888, Bertha Benz drove one of her husband’s cars from Mannheim to Pforzheim and back (fifty miles) with her two sons. By 1893, Benz’s company was building four-wheeled vehicles that were commercially successful. By the end of the century, the company had sold almost five hundred cars and, stimulated by numerous competitors, it constantly worked on technical improvements. In 1926, the company merged with the Mercedes (Daimler) organization to become Daimler-Benz, one of the premier manufacturers of all time.
Although crude and small by modern standards, Benz’s first automobile represented a major technological breakthrough. If Benz had not completed his automobile in 1885, it should be noted that Daimler and others at the time were busy designing and building similar vehicles that were also powered by internal combustion
Until the end of the nineteenth century, automobiles were so undependable and expensive that relatively few people purchased or used them. During the first two decades of the twentieth century, however, continuing technological improvements made them cheaper, more efficient, and more reliable. By the time of Benz’s death in 1929, it had become almost impossible for affluent persons in the industrialized world to imagine daily life without the conveniences and hazards afforded by the automobile.
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Bankston, John. Karl Benz and the Single Cylinder Engine. Hockessin, Del.: Mitchell Lane, 2005. Forty-eight-page book written primarily for young readers; emphasizes the difficulties and competition involved in Benz’s work. -
Diesel, Eugene. From Engines to Autos. Chicago: H. Regency, 1960. A standard treatment of the early history of automobiles. -
Eckermann, Eric. World History of the Automobile. New York: Society of Automotive Engineers, 2001. Describes development of the automobile from its roots in animal-drawn conveyances to modern advances, including the early vehicles of Benz. -
Feldman, Anthony, and Peter Ford. Scientists and Inventors. New York: Facts On File, 1979. Useful essays about Benz, Daimler, and other individuals from the ancient Greeks until the 1960’s, with many provocative photographs. -
Glancey, Jonathan. The Car: The Illustrated History of the Automobile. London: Carlton Books, 2003. Primarily noteworthy for its many fine illustrations. -
Nixon, St. John C. The Invention of the Automobile. London: Country Life, 1936. A standard account of the pioneering works of Benz and Daimler. -
Roberts, Peter. The History of the Automobile. New York: Exeter Books, 1984. Useful as a general introduction to the topic. -
Singer, Charles, et al. A History of Technology. 4 vols. New York: Oxford University Press, 1958. A dependable work that includes an interesting summary of the development of automobiles. -
Williams, Brian. Karl Benz. New York: Wayland, 1991. A forty-five-page account that is factually accurate with many illustrations, useful for high school students as well as adult readers.
Krupp Works Open at Essen
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Lenoir Patents the Internal Combustion Engine
Standard Oil Company Is Incorporated
Otto Invents a Practical Internal Combustion Engine
Dunlop Patents the Pneumatic Tire
Diesel Patents the Diesel Engine
Carl Benz; Gottlieb Daimler; Étienne Lenoir; Nikolaus August Otto.