Mercedes Simplex 1902-1909

Mercedes Simplex

The Mercedes Simplex was an automobile produced from 1902-09 by the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (DMG, Daimler Motor Society, a predecessor of Daimler-Benz and Daimler-Chrysler). It continued the use of the Mercedes name as the brand of DMG, rather than Daimler.
The Mercedes Simplex was designed by Wilhelm Maybach in Stuttgart, Germany. It featured powerful engines whose power ranged from 40 to 60 hp. Its large and wide body had a low center of gravity

The name

The car's predecessor, the Mercedes 35hp of 1901, had broken with the previous primitive automotive standards. Now, DMG and Maybach intended to improve this further by providing "comfort by means of simplicity", hence the name Simplex. A complementary explanation for the name is that, by the standards of 1901, the car was very simple to operate

Mercedes Simplex as a racecar (1902)

When Jellinek received his first Simplex on 1 March 1902 at Nice, he rushed to incorporate it into his Mercedes race team, competing in the Nice-La Turbie hillclimbing race. He defeated all his opponents again and set new records.
On 7 April 1902, during Nice week, Albert Lemaître finished second in the 'Nice – La Turbie mountain race driving a Mercedes Simplex. He was competing in the category for racing cars weighing more than 1000 kg.
Also in 1902, in the United States, a Mercedes Simplex won the 5-mile track race at Grosse-Pointe, Detroit.
In this 1902 campaign, the third step involved William K. Vanderbilt Jr, a US multimillionaire and race car enthusiast who created in 1904 the American Vanderbilt Cup. He had already set several records with the previous Mercedes, in some of the most popular races around the turn of the century, usually long distance ones.
Now, with the Mercedes Simplex, Vanderbilt took part in the 600 mile race to Paris. Later, he broke all records in the Ablis to Chartres race with flying start, with a top-speed of 111.8 km/h. One of his Simplex units is the oldest surviving Mercedes car.

The German Emperor was a simple fan

Mercedes-Simplex 's prowesses were resonating all around the world. More than ever DMG obtained clients among the most important social figures .
Meeting Maybach personally at Berlin's automobile exhibition of 1903 Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany expressed his admiration for the car. Congratulating him for all the achievements at the races, he contrasted these with car's name, commenting: "A truly beautiful engine you have here! But it's not as simple as that, you know."

Dimensions

Mercedes Simplex ' framework was long, wide and with a low center of gravity giving an improved stability at high speeds. The wheelbase was extended to 2.45 meters (8'1").
Its carefully designed frame was made of pressed steel. The engine was welded onto it directly keeping it at a low height.
Other general modifications reduced the overall Simplex weight to 942 kg assuring better results in racing.

Axles

The original 1902 wheels were wooden, with 12 non-removable spokes and pneumatic tires. Later, in 1905, the Mercedes Simplex pioneered cast-steel wheels.
The front and rear axles were modernized progressively, becoming equal in diameter around 1909:

• 1902: 910x90-1020x120. Rear 10% bigger.
• 1909: 915x105-935x135. Roughly equalized.

Attached to these were the two powerful brake systems, one hand-operated and the other by foot:

• the main hand brake acted on the rear wheels, with drum brakes
• the secondary foot brake acted on the chain drive's intermediate driveshaft

Both systems were water-cooled by a sprinkling system over hot zones when braking.
Both axles were rigid, featuring semi-elliptic springs. The steering-axles were located at the extremes, decreasing the transmission of road shocks to the driver's hands

Drive system

The Mercedes Simplex ' engine was mounted over the front axle. The engine's power was taken from a sprocket flywheel, 60 cm in diameter, transmitting it to the rear drive by a long roller chain.
The gate gear manual gearbox featured four speeds and reverse, controlling a coil spring clutch acting on the flywheel system. A lever produced both declutching and deceleration together.

Engine

The engine produced 44 hp at 1300 rpm
Its four cylinders featured:

• water cooling
• lubrication by driver-controlled pressure
• 120 mm bore and 150 mm stroke
• valves mechanically timed by enclosed camshaft mechanically
• engine displacement of 6786 cc

It used magneto electric-spark ignition system  with single spray-nozzle carburetor  for all cylinders; featuring a new atomization system, improved by preheating.
The engine was started up by a hand crank and helped by the use of a decompressor.
Maybach's tubular honeycomb radiator featured a rectangular grill of 8,070 square shaped pipes of 6x6 mm, with improved airflow.
Originally, when launched in 1902, the Mercedes Simplex radiator's did not have a fan  A set of vanes mounted on the flywheel increased the air-flow throughout the engine/radiator's compartment. Its total water capacity, 7 litres  was smaller than the previous Mercedes model by 2 litres.
The engine compartment was covered by metal sheets. Its chassis base was also covered, something imitated by many other car models later.
 

Mercedes 35 hp

Mercedes 35 hp

The Mercedes 35 HP (German Mercedes 35 PS) was a radical early car model designed in 1901 by Wilhelm Maybach and Paul Daimler, for Emil Jellinek. Produced in Stuttgart, Germany, by Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG), it began the Mercedes line of cars (since 1926 re-branded Mercedes-Benz). Its name is derived from the power of the car, 35 Pferdestärke (26 kW, approximately 35 horsepower
A significant advancement over the previous generation of automobiles, which were modified stagecoaches, the Mercedes 35 HP is regarded as the first modern car.It was equipped with a powerful petrol engine, it was both wider and larger with a tailored steel chassis  and its center of mass was near the ground. Originally designed as a racing car, the Mercedes 35 HP was further developed for normal road use.

Development

Jellinek specified revolutionary improvements. Unlike the previous generation of cars, unstable motorized coaches of narrow high bodies which were so prone to overturn, the novel Mercedes should be longer, wider, and of a lower center of gravity. Also it would have a light steel body and strong chassis, onto which the engine would be firmly fixed near the ground and lowering the car's center of gravity. 36 of these cars would be delivered, for the large sum of 500000
Over the following months of 1900 Jellinek oversaw the process closely, at first through daily telegrams, and subsequently, by traveling personally. Maybach tested the new car for the first time on 22 November and Jellinek received his first delivery on 22 December 1900.
In January 1901, Emil Jellinek's Mercedes team tested six of the new Mercedes 35 HP in the Pau Grand Prix, but the racecar was of a disappointing performance by multiple technical complications and enduring just for few laps. However in the Nice-La Turbie event of March 1901, it was much different. Jellinek participated through five Mercedes 35 HP and the German driver Wilhelm Werner. The cars dominated the race from start to finish with a record average speed of 51.4 km/h (31.9 mi/h), beating the previous 31.3 km/h (19.4 mi/h) and reaching top speeds of 86 km/h (53 mi/h). Those results easily outclassed all other competing cars in any capacity. The automotive world was so astonished that Paul Meyan, director of the French Automobile Club, stated: "We have entered era of Mercedes". Eventually, the road car achieved typical speeds of 70–75 km/h (43–47 mi/h). The racing version could exceed 85 km/h (53 mi/h).
In Stuttgart, DMG mounted two additional back seats on the Mercedes 35 HP, transforming it for a family car. Between March and August 1901, it manufactured two more Mercedes models, the 12/16 HP and the 8/11 HP. The Mercedes was so successful that the production lines of the DMG ran at full capacity. The Mercedes trademark was used on DMG production automobiles from 23 June 1902. It was formally registered on 26 September 1902.
In June 1903, Emil Jellinek changed his own name to Jellinek-Mercedes, stating: "This is probably the first time that a father has taken his daughter's name

Dimensions


The Mercedes 35 HP had a wheelbase of 2.345 m and a track of 1.400 m. The total weight was also dramatically reduced to 1200 kg by making the main chassis frame of pressed steel of carefully designed U-shaped cross section.
The relatively light engine (230 kg, with 6.6 kg/hp) was mounted over the front axle without any extra subframes, so its center of gravity was close to the ground.

Running gear

The wooden wheels of the Mercedes 35 HP were non-removable, featuring 12 spokes, steel covers and pneumatic tires: 910 mm tall, 90 mm wide in front, and 1020 mm tall, 120 mm wide in the rear.
There were two braking systems, one hand operated and the other by foot. The main brake was the hand brake which acted on the rear wheels which had 30 cm drums. The secondary, foot brake, acted on the chain drive's intermediate shaft and was water-cooled.
Both axles were rigid, equipped with semi-elliptic springs. The steering-axles were designed to minimise transmission of road shocks to the driver. The steering column was inclined backwards unlike the vertical shaft on many of its contemporaries.
The engine of the Mercedes 35 HP was at the front of the car driving the rear wheels through a large roller chain. The gearshift was at the driver's right side, featuring a gate change system with four forward speeds and a reverse gear. The drum like compact clutch system was attached to the flywheel. The flywheel consisted of a self-adjustable coil spring made up of wound spring steel. The tension at which the clutch operated was regulated by a conical cam
Engine

The main bearings were made of magnalium, an aluminium alloy with 5% magnesium. The crankcase was also made of aluminium.The four cylinders, cast in grey iron with fixed heads, gave a total displacement of 5.918 L (116 mm bore, 140 mm stroke), and were arranged in pairs each pair with a single spray-nozzle carburetor. The intake and exhaust valves were no longer opened by cylinder pressure but by two camshafts on the sides of the engine, driven by gears from the flywheel. There were two carburetors, one for each cylinder-pair.
The engine was started by a hand crank aided by the presence of a decompressor. The engine also incorporated a low-voltage magneto with make-and-break spark ignition. This was fitted at Jellinek's demand, replacing the antiquated hot tube system.
Cooling was provided by a pumped water system. Maybach's tubular radiator, patented in 1897, known as a honeycomb radiator, was similar to present-day^[update] ones. Its rectangular grille had 8070 pipes with a square cross section of 6 mm × 6 mm to improve airflow, and held 9 L of water. The airflow was assisted by a fan located behind the radiator.
The Mercedes 35 HP engine ran between 300 rev/min and 1000 rev/min, its speed controlled by the driver using a lever on the steering wheel. Its peak output was 35 HP at 950 rev/min.


 

Karl Bens patented the three-wheeled Patented Motorwagen on January 29, 1886 and produced it as the first commercially available automobile from 1886 through 1893. He followed this initial success with the introduction of the Benz Velo model of 1894. The Velo and the Duryea Motor Wagen, patented in 1895, are credited as the first standardized  cars. 67 Benz Velos were built in 1894 and 134 in 1895. The early Velo had a 1L 3.5 hp engine and later a 3.5 hp engine giving a top speed of 12 mph (19 km/h).

The list of Mercedes Benz Vehicles indexed by year of introduction!

The Benz Patent-Motorwagen (or motorcar), built in 1886, is widely regarded as the first automobile; that is, a vehicle designed to be propelled by a motor.
The vehicle was awarded the German patent , number 37435, for whichKarl Benz  applied on January 29, 1886. Following official procedures, the date of the application became the patent date for the invention once the patent was granted, which occurred in November of that year.
Although Benz's wife, Bertha financed the development process, and would hold patent rights under modern law, as a married woman she was not allowed to apply for the patent.
Benz officially unveiled his invention to the public on July 3, 1886, on the Ringstrasse (Ringstraße) in Mannheim Germany.
About 25 Patent Motorwagens were built between 1886 and 1893.

 

SPECIFICATIONS

After developing a successful gasoline-powered two stroke pistons engine in 1873, Benz focused on developing a motorized vehicle while maintaining a career as a designer and manufacturer of stationary engines and their associated parts.
The Benz Patent-Motorwagen was a three-wheeled automobile with a rear-mounted engine. The vehicle contained many new inventions. It was constructed of steel tubing with woodwork panels. The steel-spoked wheels and solid rubber tires were Benz's own design. Steering was by way of a tooted rack that pivoted the unsprung front wheel. Fully elliptic springs were used at the back along with a live axle and chain drive  on both sides. A simple belt system served as a single-speed transmission , varying torque between an open disc and drive disc.

Karl Benz - detail from gravestone

Working replica of the 1885 Benz Motorwagen in Frankfurt, 2007

The first Motorwagen used the Benz 954 cc single-cylinder four-stroke engine. This new engine produced ²⁄₃ horsepower (0.50 kW) at 250 rpm in the Patent-Motorwagen, although later tests by the University of Mannheim showed it to be capable of .9 hp (0.67 kW) at 400 rpm. It was an extremely light engine for the time, weighing about 100 kg (220 lb). Although its open crankcase and drip oiling system would be alien to a modern mechanic, its use of a pushrod -operated poppet valve  for exhaust would be quite familiar. A large horizontal flywheel stabilized the single-cylinder engine's power output. An evaporative carburettor  was controlled by a sleeve valve  to regulate power and engine speed. The first model of the Motorwagen had not been built with a carburetor, rather a basin of fuel soaked fibers that supplied fuel to the cylinder by evaporation.
Benz later built more models of the Motorwagen, model number 2 boasting 1.5 hp (1.1 kW), and model number 3 with 2 hp (1.5 kW), allowing the vehicle to reach a maximum speed of approximately 10 mph (16 km/h). The chassis was improved in 1887 with the introduction of wooden-spoke wheels, a fuel tank, and a manual leather shoe brake on the rear wheels

Historic drive of Bertha Benz

The Benz Patent-Motorwagen Nr. 3 of 1888, used by Bertha Benz for the first long distance journey by automobile (more than 106 km or sixty miles)

Official signpost of Bertha Benz Memorial Route

Bertha Benz, married to Karl, chose to publicize the Patent-Motorwagen in a unique manner: She took the Patent-Motorwagen No. 3, supposedly without her husband's knowledge, and drove it on the first long-distance automobile road trip to demonstrate its feasibility as a means to travel long distances.

Patent-Motorwagen Nr.1 Benz 2

That trip occurred in early August 1888, as the entrepreneurial lady took her sons Eugen and Richard, fifteen and fourteen years old, respectively, on a ride from Mannheim through Heidelberg, and Wiesloch (where she took on ligroin as a fuel at the city pharmacy, making it the first filling station in history), to her maternal hometown of Pforzheim
As well as being the driver, Benz acted as mechanic on the drive, cleaning the carburetor with her hatpin and using a garter to insulate a wire. She refueled at the local pharmacy in Wiesloch and as the brakes wore down, Benz asked a local shoemaker to nail leather on the brake blocks, in doing so, inventing brake lining on the way. After sending a telegram to her husband of the arrival in Pforzheim, she spent the night at her mother's house and returned home three days later. The trip covered 194 km (121 mi) in total.
In Germany, a parade of antique automobiles celebrates this historic trip of Bertha Benz every two years. In 2008, the Bertha Benz Memorial Route was officially approved as a route of industrial heritage of mankind, because it follows Bertha Benz's tracks of the world's first long-distance journey by automobile in 1888. Now everybody can follow the 194 km (121 mi) of signposted route from Mannheim via Heidelberg to Pforzheim (Black Forest) and back.

 

 

 

Karl Benz, Bertha Benz, and their son, Eugen, moved 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) east of Mannheim to live in nearby Ladenburg, 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 lack of demand.

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. The Benz Sons automobiles were of good quality and became popular in London as taxis.
In 1912, Karl 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 of Karlsruhe on November 25, 1914, the seventy-year-old Karl Benz was awarded an honorary doctorate by his alma mater, the Karlruhe University, thereby becoming—Dr. Ing. h. c. Karl Benz.

1923 Benz "Teardrop" aerodynamic racecar

Almost from the very beginning of the production of automobiles, participation in sports car racing became a major method to gain publicity for manufacturers. At first, the production models were raced and the Benz Velo participated in the first automobile race: Paris to rouen . Later, investment in developing racecars  for motorsports 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, as seen in the photograph here of the Benz, the first mid-engine and aerodynamically designed, Tropfenwagen, a "teardrop" body introduced at the 1923 European at Monza
In the last production year of the Benz Sons company, 1923, three hundred and fifty units were built. During the following year, 1924, Karl 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 Karl and Bertha Benz, now the location of the Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz Foundation in LadenBurg, in Baden-Wurrtengerb

The German economic crisis worsened. In 1923 Benz & Cie. produced only 1,382 units in Mannheim, and DMG made only 1,020 in Stuttgart. The average cost of an automobile was 25 million marks 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.
On June 28, 1926, Benz & Cie. and DMG finally merged as the Daimles -Benz company, baptizing all of its automobiles, Mercedes Benz, honoring the most important model of the DMG automobiles, the 1902 Mercedes 35 hp, along with the Benz name. The name of that DMG model had been selected after ten-year-old Mercedes Jellinek, the daughter of Emil Jellineck who had set the specifications for the new model. Between 1900 and 1909 he was a member of DMG's board of management and long before the merger Jellinek had resigned.
Karl Benz was a member of the new Daimler Benz board of management for the remainder of his life. A new logo was created, consisting of a three pointed star (representing Daimler's motto: "engines for land, air, and water") surrounded by traditional laurels from the Benz logo, and the brand of all of its automobiles was labeled Mercedes 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 the Mercedes Benz SSK was presented.
On April 4, 1929, Karl Benz died at home in Ladenburg at the age of eighty-four from bronchial infflamation. Until her death on May 5, 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 now has been designated as historic and is used as a scientific meeting facility for a nonprofit foundation, the Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz Foundation, that honors both Bertha and Karl Benz for their roles in the history of automobiles.

Benz & Cie. expansion

The great demand for stationary, static internal combustion engines forced Karl 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 a with the arrival Julius Ganß, who came aboard as members of the Board of Management. Ganß worked in the commercialization department, which is somewhat similar to marketing in contemporary corporations.
The new directors recommended that Benz should create a less expensive automobile suitable for mass production. In 1893, Karl Benz created the Victoria, 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 a pivotal front axle operated by a roller-chained tiller for steering The model was successful with 85 units sold in 1893.
The Benz Velo also participated in the world's first automobile race, the 1894 Paris to Rouen, where Émile Roger finished 14th, after covering the 127 km (79 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 in history, with some of the units later modified by the first motor bus company: the Netphener  becoming the first motor buses in history.
In 1896, Karl Benz was granted a patent for his design of the first flat engine. It had horizontally opposed pistons, a design in which the corresponding pistons reach top dead centre simultaneously, thus balancing each other with respect to momentum. Flat engines with four or fewer cylinders are most commonly called boxer engines, boxermotor in German, and also are known as horizontally opposed engines. This design is still used by Porsche, Subaru, and some high performance engines used in racing cars. In motorcycles, the most famous boxer engine is found in BMW motorcycles,though the boxer engine design was used in many other models, including Zundapp, Wooler, Douglas Dragonfly, Ratier, Universal, IMZ-Ural, Dnepr, Gnome et Rhône, Chang Jiang, Marusho, and the Honda Gold Wing.
Although Gottlieb Daimler died in March 1900—and there is no evidence that Benz and Daimler knew each other nor that they knew about each other's early achievements—eventually, competition with Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (DMG) in Stuttgartt began to challenge the leadership of Benz & Cie. In October 1900 the main designer of DMG, Wilhelm Maybach, built the engine that would be used later, in the Mercedes-35hp of 1902. The engine was built to the specifications of Emil 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 December 22, 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.

Logo with laurels used on Benz & Cie automobiles after 1909

Benz countered with Parsifil, introduced in 1903 with a vertical twin engine that achieved a top speed of 37 mph (60 km/h). Then, without consulting Benz, the other directors hired some French designers. France was a country with an extensive automobile industry based on Maybach's creations. Because of this action, after difficult discussions, Karl Benz announced his retirement from design management on January 24, 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., Karl Benz would soon found 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 the French variant of Benz's first name, "Carl".

Benz & Cie. and the Benz Patent Motorwagen

Benz's lifelong hobby 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 & Company Rheinische Gasmotoren-Fabrik,usually referred to as, Benz & Cie. Quickly growing to twenty-five employees, it soon began to produce static gas engines,as well.
The success of the company gave Benz the opportunity to indulge in his old passion of designing a horseless carriage. Based on his experience with, and fondness for, bicycles, he used similar technology when he created an automobile It featured wire wheels (unlike carriages' wooden ones) ^[ with a four-stroke engine of his own design between the rear wheels, with a very advanced coil ignition  and evaporative cooling rather than a radiator.Power was transmitted by means of two rollerchains to the rear axle. Karl Benz finished his creation in 1885 and named it the Benz Patent Motorwagen.
It was the first automobile entirely designed as such to generate its own power, not simply a motorized-stage coach or horse carriage, which is why Karl Benz was granted his patent and is regarded as its inventor.
The Motorwagen was patented on January 29, 1886 as DRP-37435: "automobile fueled by gas".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. The next year Benz created the Motorwagen Model 2, which had several modifications, and in 1887, the definitive Model 3 with wooden wheels was introduced, showing at the Paris Expo the same year.
Benz began to sell the vehicle (advertising it as the 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 Emile Roger who had already been building Benz engines under license from Karl 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.

Replica of the Benz Patent Motorwagen built in 1885

Engine of the Benz Patent Motorwagen

Early customers could only buy gasoline from pharmacies that sold small quantities as a cleaning product. The early 1888 version of the Motorwagen had no gears and could not climb hills unaided. This limitation was rectified after Bertha Benz made her famous trip driving one of the vehicles a great distance and suggested to her husband the addition of another gear.
An important part in the Benz story is this first long distance automobile trip, where entrepreneurial Bertha Benz, supposedly without the knowledge of her husband, on the morning of August 5, 1888, took this vehicle on a 106 km (66 mi) trip from Mannheim to Pforzheim to visit her mother, taking her sons Eugen and Richard with her. In addition to having to locate pharmacies on the way to fuel up, she repaired various technical and mechanical problems and invented brake lining. After some longer downhill slopes she ordered a shoemaker to nail leather on the brake blocks. Bertha Benz and sons finally arrived at nightfall, announcing the achievement to Karl by telegram. 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 Bertha Benz Memorial Route was officially approved as a route of industrial heritage of mankind, because it follows Bertha Benz's tracks of the world's first long-distance journey by automobile in 1888. Now everybody can follow the 194 km of signposted route from Mannheim via Heidelberg to Pforzheim (Black Forest) and back. The return trip was along a different, slightly shorter, itinerary, 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 1889 World's Fair in Paris; about twenty-five Motorwagens were built between 1886 and 1893.

 Karl Friedrich Benz (November 25, 1844 – April 4, 1929) was a German engine designer and car engineer  generally regarded as the inventor of the petrol powered automobile  and together with Bertha Benz pioneering founder of the automobile manufacturer Mercedes-Benz.Other German contemporaries, Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach working as partners, also worked on similar types of inventions, without knowledge of the work of the other, but Benz patented his work first, and, subsequently patented all the processes that made the internal combustion engine feasible for use in an automobile. In 1879 his first engine patent was granted to him and in 1886 Benz was granted a patent for his first automobile.
Karl Benz was born Karl Friedrich Michael Vaillant, in november 25, 1844 in Mühlburg now a borough of Karlsruhe, Baden, which is part of modern Germany, to Josephine Vaillant and a locomotive driver, Johann George Benz, whom she married a few months later.When he was two years old, his father was killed in a railway accident, 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 Grammar School in Karlsruhe and was a prodigious student. In 1853, at the age of nine he started at the scientifically oriented Lyceum. Next he studied at the Poly-Technical University under the instruction of Ferdinand Redtenbacher.
Benz had originally focused his studies on locksmithing,but eventually followed his father's steps toward locomotive engineering. On September 30, 1860, at age fifteen, he passed the entrance exam for mechanical engineering at the University of Karlsruhe, which he subsequently attended. Benz was graduated July 9, 1864 at nineteen.
During these years, while riding his bicycle, he started to envision concepts for a vehicle that would eventually become the horseless carriage.
Following his formal education, Benz had seven years of professional training in several companies, but did not fit well in any of them. The started in Karlsruhe with two years of varied jobs in a mechanical engineering company.
He then moved to Mannheim to work as a draftsman and designer in a scales factory. In 1868 he went to Pforzheim to work for a bridge building company Gebrüder Benckiser Eisenwerke und Maschinenfabrik. Finally, he went to Vienna for a short period to work at an iron construction company.

Benz's first factory and early inventions (1871–1882)

In 1871, at the age of twenty-seven, Karl Benz joined August Ritter in launching the Iron Foundry and Mechanical Workshop in Mannheim  later renamed Factory for Machines for Sheet-metal Working.
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 her dowry
On July 20, 1872 Karl Benz and Bertha Ringer married. They had five children: Eugen (1873), Richard (1874), Clara (1877), Thilde (1882), and Ellen (1890).
Despite such business misfortunes, Karl Benz led in the development of new engines in the early factory he and his wife owned. To get more revenues, in 1878 he began to work on new patents. First, he concentrated all his efforts on creating a reliable petrol two-stroke engine. Benz finished his two-stroke engine on December 31, 1878, New Year's Eve, and was granted a patent for it in 1879.
Karl Benz showed his real genius, however, through his successive inventions registered while designing what would become the production standard for his two-stroke engine. Benz soon patented the speed regulatiion system, the ignition using sparks with battery  the spark plug  the carburetor the clutch the gear shift  and the water radiator

Benz's Gasmotoren-Fabrik Mannheim (1882–1883)

Problems arose again when the banks at Mannheim demanded that Bertha and Karl Benz's enterprise be incorporated due to the high production costs it maintained. The Benzes were forced to improvise an association with photographer Emil Bühler and his brother (a cheese merchant), in order to get additional bank support. The company became the joint-stock company Gasmotoren Fabrik Mannheim in 1882.
After all the necessary incorporation agreements, Benz was unhappy because he was left with merely five percent of the shares 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.

Hello all!
I want to start with                            Karl Benz 25 nov 1844

4 aprilie 1929