Opposite page: Carl Benz, inventor of the car
Above: the Benz Patent- Motorwagen on its huge, bicycle-type wheels
Left: Benz’ s four-stroke, single-cylinder engine
Right: Bertha Benz, pioneer female driver.
With his back to the wall, he decided to pursue his passion for new technology, and started work on a small stationary engine to run on petroleum spirit, one that could find multiple industrial uses and had great future prospects.
By New Year’ s Eve 1879 he had it running to his satisfaction and, while his wife Bertha probably handled the household budget with similar efficiency, he applied for and gained his first British and French patents for it. This was promising stuff at last. So promising, in fact, that Benz found eager financial backers for his new Mannheim Gas Engine Factory. However, left with a mere 5 % stake, his influence was marginalised. He’ d departed the business by 1883. Yet rather than being doleful, Benz was fired-up. For some time, he’ d been toying with his idea for a‘ horseless carriage’ to incorporate a gasoline engine, and all his recent experiences – good and bad – gave him the confidence to go for it.
That October Carl teamed up with a couple of local bicycle shop owners so he had somewhere to work, and the trio founded Benz & Cie. Rheinische Gasmotoren-Fabrik. His industrial engines, built by a workforce of 25, as well as selling manufacturing licences, were soon providing the cashflow to make the venture a solid success, and this gave Carl the breathing space to work on his pet project: to attach an internal combustion engine to a roadgoing vehicle.
As he saw it, it was essential his self-propelled carriage was a fully integrated design with the frame and power unit designed to fit together. To that end, his engine would sit below the two seats in a tubular steel frame that was just lightweight enough to keep it robust, and the conveyance would ride on large, bicycle-type( naturally) spoked wheels for plenty of ground clearance. As it was designed as a tricycle, he was able to do away with the problematic swivel-seat steering mechanism typical for carriages.
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