Carl (orKarl)Friedrich Benz (German:[kaʁlˈfʁiːdʁɪçˈbɛnts]ⓘ; bornKarl Friedrich Michael Vaillant; 25 November 1844 – 4 April 1929) was a German engine designer and automotiveengineer. HisBenz Patent-Motorwagen from 1885 is considered the first practical, modernautomobile and the first car to be put into series production.[1] He received apatent for the motorcar in 1886, the same year he first publicly drove the Benz Patent-Motorwagen.[2]
Carl Benz was born Karl Friedrich Michael Vaillant on 25 November 1844 inMühlburg, now a borough ofKarlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, which is part of modern Germany. His parents were Josephine Vaillant and alocomotive driver, Johann Georg Benz, whom she married a few months later. According to German law, the child acquired the name "Benz" by legal marriage of his parents.[7][8][9] When he was two years old, his father died ofpneumonia,[10] and his name was changed to Karl Friedrich Benz in remembrance of his father.
Despite living in near poverty, his mother strove to give him a good education. Benz attended the local school in Karlsruhe and was aprodigious student. In 1853, at the age of nine, he started at the scientifically orientedLyceum. Next he studied atKarlsruhe's polytechnical school under the instruction ofFerdinand Redtenbacher.[11]
Benz had originally focused his studies onlocksmithing, but he eventually followed his father's steps toward locomotive engineering. On 30 September 1860, at age 15, he passed the entrance exam for mechanical engineering for the Karlsruhe polytechnical school, which he subsequently attended. Benz graduated on 9 July 1864, aged 19.[12]
Following his formal education, Benz had seven years of professional training in several companies, but did not fit well in any of them. The training started in Karlsruhe with two years of varied jobs in a mechanical engineering company.[citation needed]
He then moved toMannheim to work as adraftsman and designer in ascales factory. In 1868, he went toPforzheim to work for the bridge building companyGebrüder Benckiser Eisenwerke und Maschinenfabrik. He later went toVienna for a short period to work at aniron construction company.[13]
Benz's first factory and early inventions (1871–1882)
In 1871, Benz joined August Ritter, in launching the Iron Foundry and Mechanical Workshop inMannheim, later renamed Factory for Machines for Sheet-metal Working.[14]
The enterprise's first year went very badly. Ritter turned out to be unreliable, and the business's tools were impounded. The difficulty was overcome when Benz's fiancée,Bertha Ringer, bought out Ritter's share in the company, using herdowry.[14][15]
On 20 July 1872,[16] Benz and Bertha Ringer married. They had five children: Eugen (1873), Richard (1874), Clara (1877), Thilde (1882), and Ellen (1890).
Despite the business misfortunes, Benz led in the development of new engines in the early factory he and his wife owned. To get more revenue, in 1878 he began to work on new patents. First, he concentrated on creating a reliable petroltwo-stroke engine. Benz finished his two-stroke engine on 31 December 1879, and was granted a patent for it on 28 June 1880.
Problems arose again when the banks at Mannheim demanded that the Benz's enterprise beincorporated due to the high production costs it maintained. They were forced to improvise an association with photographer Emil Bühler and his brother (a cheese merchant), to get additional bank support. The company became thejoint-stock companyGasmotoren Fabrik Mannheim in 1882.
After all the necessary incorporation agreements, Benz was unhappy because he was left with merely five percent of theshares and a modest position as director. Worst of all, his ideas weren't considered when designing new products, so he withdrew from that corporation just one year later, in 1883.
Rack and pinion steering, connected to a driver end tiller; wheel chained to front axle
Electric ignition
Differential rear end gears
(mechanically operated inlet valves)
Water-cooled internal combustion engine
Gas or petrol four-stroke horizontally mounted engine
Single cylinder, bore 116 mm, stroke 160 mm
Patent model: 958 cc, 0.8 hp, 16 km/h (9.9 mph)
Commercialized model: 1600 cc,3⁄4 hp, 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
Engine of the Benz Patent-MotorwagenAn official license to operate the Benz Patent-Motorwagen on the public roads was issued by Großherzoglich Badisches Bezirksamt on 1 August 1888.
Benz's lifelonghobby brought him to a bicycle repair shop in Mannheim owned by Max Rose and Friedrich Wilhelm Eßlinger. In 1883, the three founded a new company producing industrial machines:Benz & Companie Rheinische Gasmotoren-Fabrik, usually referred to asBenz & Cie. Quickly growing to twenty-five employees, it soon began to produce staticgas engines as well.
The success of the company gave Benz the opportunity to indulge in his old passion of designing ahorseless carriage. Based on his experience with, and fondness for, bicycles, he used similar technology when he created anautomobile. It featured wire wheels (unlike carriages' wooden ones)[17] with a four-stroke engine of his own design between the rear wheels, with a very advanced coil ignition[18] and evaporative cooling rather than a radiator.[18] Power was transmitted by means of tworoller chains to the rear axle. Benz finished his creation in 1885 and named it "Benz Patent-Motorwagen".
The Motorwagen was patented on 29 January 1886 as DRP-37435: "automobile fueled by gas".[19] The 1885 version was difficult to control, leading to a collision with a wall during a public demonstration. The first successful tests on public roads were carried out in the early summer of 1886. Benz first publicly drove the car on 3 July 1886 inMannheim at a top speed of 16 km/h (10 mph).[2] The next year Benz created the Motorwagen Model 2, which had several modifications, and in 1889, the definitive Model 3 with wooden wheels was introduced, showing at the Paris Expo the same year.[18]
Benz began to sell the vehicle (advertising it as "Benz Patent-Motorwagen") in the late summer of 1888, making it the first commercially available automobile in history. The second customer of the Motorwagen was a Parisian bicycle manufacturer[18]Emile Roger, who had already been building Benz engines under license from Benz for several years. Roger added the Benz automobiles (many built in France) to the line he carried in Paris and initially most were sold there.
The early 1888 version of the Motorwagen had only two gears and could not climb hills unaided. This limitation was rectified afterBertha Benz drove one of the vehicles a great distance and suggested to her husband the addition of a third gear for climbing hills. In the course of this trip she also invented brake pads.
Official signpost ofBertha Benz Memorial Route, commemorating the world's first long-distance journey with a Benz Patent-Motorwagen Number 3 in 1888The Benz Patent-Motorwagen Number 3 of 1888, used byBertha Benz for the first long-distance journey by automobile (more than 106 km or sixty miles)
The world's first long distance automobile trip was undertaken by Bertha Benz using a Model 3. On the morning of 5 August 1888 Bertha – supposedly without the knowledge of her husband – took the vehicle on a 104 km (65 mi) trip from Mannheim toPforzheim to visit her mother, taking her sons Eugen and Richard with her. In addition to having to locate pharmacies along the way to refuel, she repaired various technical and mechanical problems. One of these included the invention ofbrake lining; after some longer downhill slopes she ordered a shoemaker to nail leather onto the brake blocks. Bertha Benz and sons finally arrived at nightfall, announcing the achievement to Karl bytelegram. It had been her intention to demonstrate the feasibility of using the Benz Motorwagen for travel and to generate publicity in the manner now referred to as live marketing. Today, the event is celebrated every two years in Germany with an antique automobile rally.
In 2008, theBertha Benz Memorial Route[20] was officially approved as a route of the industrial heritage of mankind, because it follows Bertha Benz's tracks of the world's first long-distance journey by automobile in 1888. The public can now follow the 194 km (121 mi) of signposted route from Mannheim viaHeidelberg to Pforzheim (Black Forest) and back. The return trip – which didn't go through Heidelberg – was along a different, slightly shorter route, as shown on the maps of the Bertha Benz Memorial Route.
Benz's Model 3 made its wide-scale debut to the world in the 1889World's Fair in Paris; about twenty-five Motorwagens were built between 1886 and 1893.
Early logo used on automobiles by BenzBenz introduced the Velo in 1894, becoming the firstlarge scale production automobile.Bertha Benz with her husband in a Benz Victoria, model 1894First internal combustion-engined bus in history: the Benz Omnibus, built in 1895 for the Netphener bus companyBenz racing car two-cylinder 14 hp (1899)Benz delivery wagon 0.4 t (1898-1900) 6 hpOmnibus „Break“ 12 seater 13-15 hp (1898-1900)Omnibus „Break“ 8 seater 8-10 hp (1899-1901)
The great demand for staticinternal combustion engines forced Benz to enlarge the factory in Mannheim, and in 1886 a new building located on Waldhofstrasse (operating until 1908) was added.Benz & Cie. had grown in the interim from 50 employees in 1889 to 430 in 1899.
During the last years of the nineteenth century,Benz was the largest automobile company in the world with 572 units produced in 1899.
Because of its size, in 1899,Benz & Cie. became ajoint-stock company with the arrival of Friedrich von Fischer and Julius Ganß, who came aboard as members of theBoard of Management. Ganß worked in the commercialization department, which is somewhat similar to marketing in contemporary corporations.[21]
The new directors recommended that Benz should create a less expensive automobile suitable formass production. From 1893 to 1900 Benz sold the four wheel, two seatVictoria,[22] a two-passenger automobile with a 2.2 kW (3.0 hp) engine, which could reach the top speed of 18 km/h (11 mph) and had apivotal frontaxle operated by aroller-chainedtiller forsteering. The model was successful with 85 units sold in 1893, and was produced in a four-seated version with face-to-face seat benches called the "Vis-à-Vis".
From 1894 to 1902, Benz produced over 1,200 of what some consider the first mass-produced car, theVelocipede, later known as the Benz Velo.[23] The early Velo had a 1L 1.5-metric-horsepower (1.5 hp; 1.1 kW) engine, and later a 3-metric-horsepower (3 hp; 2 kW) engine. giving a top speed of 19 km/h (12 mph).
TheVelo participated in the world's first automobile race, the 1894Paris to Rouen, where Émile Roger finished 14th, after covering the 126 km (78 mi) in 10 hours 01-minute at an average speed of 12.7 km/h (7.9 mph).
In 1895, Benz designed the first truck with an internal combustion engine in history. Benz also built the first motor buses in history in 1895, for theNetphener bus company.[24][25][26]
Benz "Velo" model presentation in London 1898
In 1896, Benz was granted a patent for his design of the firstflat engine. It had horizontally opposedpistons, a design in which the corresponding pistons reach top dead centre simultaneously, thus balancing each other with respect tomomentum. Many flat engines, particularly those with four or fewer cylinders, are arranged as "boxer engines",boxermotor in German, and also are known as "horizontally opposed engines". This design is still used byPorsche,Subaru, and some high performance engines used inracing cars. In motorcycles, the most famous boxer engine is found inBMW Motorrad,[27] though the boxer engine design was used in many other models, includingVictoria,Harley-Davidson XA,Zündapp,Wooler,Douglas Dragonfly,Ratier, Universal,IMZ-Ural,Dnepr,Gnome et Rhône,Chang Jiang,Marusho, and theHonda Gold Wing.[28]
AlthoughGottlieb Daimler died in March 1900—and there is no evidence[citation needed] that Benz and Daimler knew each other nor that they knew about each other's early achievements—eventually, competition withDaimler Motoren Gesellschaft (DMG) inStuttgart began to challenge the leadership of Benz & Cie. In October 1900, the main designer of DMG,Wilhelm Maybach, built the engine that would later be used in theMercedes-35hp of 1902. The engine was built to the specifications ofEmil Jellinek under a contract for him to purchase thirty-six vehicles with the engine, and for him to become a dealer of the special series. Jellinek stipulated the new engine be named Daimler-Mercedes (for his daughter). Maybach would quit DMG in 1907, but he designed the model and all of the important changes. After testing, the first was delivered to Jellinek on 22 December 1900. Jellinek continued to make suggestions for changes to the model and obtained good results racing the automobile in the next few years, encouraging DMG to engage in commercial production of automobiles, which they did in 1902.
Benz countered withParsifal, introduced in 1903 with a vertical twin engine that achieved a top speed of 60 km/h (37 mph). Then, without consulting Benz, the other directors hired some French designers.[29]
France was a country with an extensive automobile industry based on Maybach's creations. Because of this action, after difficult discussions, Benz announced his retirement from design management on 24 January 1903, although he remained as director on the Board of Management through its merger with DMG in 1926 and, remained on the board of the new Daimler-Benz corporation until his death in 1929.
Benz's sons Eugen and Richard left Benz & Cie. in 1903, but Richard returned to the company in 1904 as the designer of passenger vehicles.
That year, sales of Benz & Cie. reached 3,480 automobiles, and the company remained the leading manufacturer of automobiles.
Along with continuing as a director of Benz & Cie., Benz founded another company,C. Benz Söhne, (with his son Eugen and closely held within the family), a privately held company for manufacturing automobiles. The brand name used the first initial of Benz's first name, "Carl".[citation needed]
1909Blitzen Benz – built by Benz & Cie., which held theland speed record
In 1909, theBlitzen Benz was built in Mannheim by Benz & Cie. The bird-beaked vehicle had a 21.5-liter (1312ci), 150 kW (200 hp) engine, and on 9 November 1909 in the hands ofVictor Hémery of France,[34] theland speed racer atBrooklands, set a record of 226.91 km/h (141.00 mph), said to be "faster than any plane, train, or automobile" at the time, a record that was not exceeded for ten years by any other vehicle. It was transported to several countries, including the United States, to establish multiple records of this achievement.
Logo with laurels used on Benz & Cie. automobiles after 1909Bond of the Benz & Cie., issued 1912Carl and Bertha Benz inc. 1926
Carl Benz, Bertha Benz, and their son, Eugen, moved 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) east of Mannheim to live in nearbyLadenburg, and solely with their own capital, founded the private company, C. Benz Sons (German:Benz Söhne) in 1906, producing automobiles and gas engines. The latter type was replaced by petrol engines because of lack of demand.[35]
Logo on family held business production vehicles
This company never issued stocks publicly, building its own line of automobiles independently from Benz & Cie., which was located in Mannheim. TheBenz Sons automobiles were of good quality and became popular in London astaxis.
In 1912, Benz liquidated all of his shares in Benz Sons and left the family-held company in Ladenburg to Eugen and Richard, but he remained as a director of Benz & Cie.
During a birthday celebration for him in his home town ofKarlsruhe on 25 November 1914, the seventy-year-old Benz was awarded an honorarydoctorate by his alma mater, theKarlsruhe University, thereby becoming—Dr. Ing. h. c. Benz.[35][36]
Almost from the very beginning of the production of automobiles, participation insports car racing became a major method to gain publicity for manufacturers. At first, the production models were raced and the BenzVelo participated in the first automobile race:Paris to Rouen 1894. Later, investment in developingracecars formotorsports produced returns through sales generated by the association of the name of the automobile with the winners. Unique race vehicles were built at the time such as the firstmid-engine andaerodynamically designed,Tropfenwagen, a "teardrop" body introduced at the 1923European Grand Prix atMonza.
In the last production year of theBenz Sons company, 1923, three hundred and fifty units were built. During the following year, 1924, Benz built two additional 8/25 hp units of the automobile manufactured by this company, tailored for his personal use, which he never sold; they are still preserved.
Toward Daimler-Benz and the first Mercedes-Benz in 1926
Last home of Carl and Bertha Benz, now the location of the Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz Foundation inLadenburg, inBaden-Württemberg
The German economic crisis worsened. In 1923Benz & Cie. produced only 1,382 units in Mannheim, andDMG made only 1,020 in Stuttgart. The average cost of an automobile was 25 millionmarks because of rapid inflation. Negotiations between the two companies resumed and in 1924 they signed an "Agreement of Mutual Interest" valid until the year 2000. Both enterprises standardized design, production, purchasing, sales, and advertising—marketing their automobile models jointly—although keeping their respective brands.[37]
On 28 June 1926, Benz & Cie. and DMG finally merged as theDaimler-Benz company, baptizing all of its automobiles asMercedes-Benz, honoring the most important model of the DMG automobiles, the 1902Mercedes 35 hp, along with the Benz name. The name of Mercedes 35 hp had been chosen for ten-year-oldMercédès Jellinek, the daughter ofEmil Jellinek who had set the specifications for the new model. Between 1900 and 1909 he was a member of DMG's board of management, however had resigned long before the merger.
Benz was a member of the newDaimler-Benz board of management for the remainder of his life. A new logo was created in 1926, consisting of a three pointed star (representing Daimler'smotto:"engines for land, air, and water") surrounded by traditionallaurels from the Benz logo, and the brand of all of its automobiles was labeledMercedes-Benz. Model names would follow the brand name in the same convention as today.
The next year, 1927, the number of units sold tripled to 7,918 and thediesel line was launched for truck production. In 1928, theMercedes-Benz SSK was presented.
On 4 April 1929, Benz died at his home in Ladenburg at the age of 84 from abronchial inflammation. Until her death on 5 May 1944,Bertha Benz continued to reside in their last home. Members of the family resided in the home for thirty more years. The Benz home has now been designated ashistoric and is used as a scientific meeting facility for a nonprofit foundation, theGottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz Foundation.
The Carl Benz monument in Mannheim (2015)
The Carl Benz monument in Mannheim (2015)
The Carl Benz monument in Mannheim (2015)
The Carl Benz monument in Mannheim (2015)
The Carl Benz monument in Mannheim (2015)
The Carl Benz monument in Mannheim, in the evening (2015)
In 2011, a dramatized television film about the life of Carl and Bertha Benz was made namedCarl & Bertha [de], which premiered on 11 May[41] and was aired byDas Erste on 23 May.[42] A trailer of the film[43] and a "making of" special were released onYouTube.[44]
Benz, Carl (2001).Lebensfahrt eines deutschen Erfinders : meine Erinnerungen / Karl Benz [The life of a German inventor: my memories / Karl Benz] (in German). München: Koehler und Amelang.ISBN3-7338-0302-7. (autobiography)
Elis, Angela (2010).Mein Traum ist länger als die Nacht : wie Bertha Benz ihren Mann zu Weltruhm fuhr [My dream is longer than the night : how Bertha Benz drove her husband to worldwide fame] (in German). Hamburg: Hoffmann und Campe.ISBN9783455501469.OCLC768728847.
Kirchberg, Peter; Wächtler, Eberhard; Goetz, D.; Wächtler, E.; Winter, I.; Wußing, H. (1981).Carl Benz Gottlieb Daimler Wilhelm Maybach (in German). Wiesbaden: Vieweg+Teubner Verlag : Imprint : Vieweg+Teubner Verlag.ISBN9783322822185.OCLC913809190.
Benz, Karl; Pein, Max-Gerrit von; Niemann, Harry; Engelen, Günter; Daimler-Benz Aktiengesellschaft; Mercedes-Benz-Museum (1994).Benz & Cie. : zum 150. Geburtstag von Karl Benz [Benz & Cie. : on the 150th birthday of Karl Benz] (in German). Stuttgart: Motorbuch Verlag.ISBN978-3-613-01643-9.OCLC37513189.
Seherr-Thoss, Hans Christoph (1988).Zwei Männer – ein Stern : Gottlieb Daimler und Karl Benz in Bildern, Daten und Dokumenten [Two men – one star: Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz in pictures, data and documents] (in German) (2 ed.). Düsseldorf: VDI-Verlag.ISBN9783184008512.OCLC35484713.
Seidel, Winfried A. (2005).Carl Benz : eine badische Geschichte; die Vision vom "pferdelosen Wagen" verändert die Welt [Carl Benz : a Baden history; the vision of the "horseless car" changes the world] (in German). Weinheim: Diesbach.ISBN9783936468298.OCLC61766483. (biography)
Siebertz, Paul (1950).Karl Benz; ein Pionier der motorisierung [Karl Benz; a pioneer of motorization] (in German) (2 ed.). Stuttgart: Reclam.OCLC2278046.
McNeil, Ian; Day, Lance (1996)."Benz, Karl".Biographical dictionary of the history of technology. London and New York: Routledge.ISBN9781134650194.OCLC33443714.Archived from the original on 15 November 2023. Retrieved17 October 2023.
Das Automuseum Dr. Carl Benz in der alten Benz Fabrik(in German) is theDr. Carl Benz Auto Museum created by a private group in 1996[1]Archived 23 April 2017 at theWayback Machine in a former Benz factory for an ancillary business founded with his sons inLadenburg, which was separate from his major companies. The company opened in 1906 and closed in 1923, the site has a description of this museum andcontemporary photographs, showing "C. Benz SÖHNE KG" painted on the building, which contains historical photographs, some restored automobiles, and achronology of the life of Karl Benz.
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