Benz Patent-Motorwagen: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|Vehicle widely regarded as the firstFirst modern automobile}}

| name = Benz Patent-Motorwagen

| image = 1885Benz.jpg

| caption = Benz Patent-Motorwagen Nr. 1

| manufacturer = [[Benz & Cie.|Rheinische Gasmotorenfabrik Benz & Cie.]]<br />(known today as [[Mercedes-Benz Group|Mercedes-Benz]])

| production = {{start date and age|1886}}–1893

| engine = 1.0L0 L (954cc954 cc) single cylinder engine {{2/3}}hp ([[Ligroin]] fuel)

| successor = [[Benz Velo]]

The '''Benz Patent-Motorwagen''' ("patent motorcar"), built in 1885 by the German [[Karl Benz]], is widely regarded as the first practical modern [[automobile]]<ref name="Parissien">{{Cite book |last=Parissien |first=Steven |url=http://archive.org/details/lifeofautomobile0000pari_v0r8 |title=The life of the automobile : the complete history of the motor car |date=2014 |publisher=New York, N.Y. : Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin's Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-1-250-04063-3 |pages=2–5}}</ref>{{efn|Before [[Karl Benz]] patented his Motorwagen in January 1886, several inventors were working on [[Steam car|automobiles powered by steam engines]]; in 1769, [[Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot]] built the first steam-propelled vehicle.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nicolas-Joseph-Cugnot |access-date=22 October 2022 |website=Encyclopædia Britannica}}</ref> During the 1870s, [[Amédée Bollée|Bollée]] created several steam vehicles which could carry passengers for road trips.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lavergne |first=Gérard |title=The Automobile: Its Construction and Management |publisher=Cassell |year=1902 |pages=17}}</ref> Steam cars have, however, been characterized by various authors as "distinctly uncommercial",<ref name="Parissien" /> "unsafe",<ref>{{Cite book |last=Frey |first=Carl Benedikt |title=The Technology Trap: Capital, Labor, and Power in the Age of Automation |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2020 |isbn=9780691210797 |pages=166}}</ref> and "difficult to manage".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bailey |first=Diane |title=How the Automobile Changed History |publisher=ABDO |year=2015 |isbn=9781629697666 |pages=28}}</ref> According to automotive historian [[G. N. Georgano]], innovations such as the stationary [[Otto engine]] helped make the invention of the Benz Motorwagen possible, which he labelled as "the first motorcar" due to its commercial production.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Georgano |first=G. N. |title=Cars, 1886–1930 |publisher=Beekman House |year=1985 |isbn=9780517480731 |pages=9, 16}}</ref> The company [[Mercedes-Benz]] also acknowledge there were forerunners to the Motorwagen, but also state that Benz was the first to develop "a "'horseless carriage"' into a product for everyday use, which he then brought to market and as a result made his idea useful for the entire world".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Forerunners to the automobile |url=https://group.mercedes-benz.com/company/tradition/company-history/forerunners-to-the-automobile.html |access-date=22 October 2022 |publisher=Mercedes-Benz Group}}</ref>}} and was the first car put into production.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.dpma.de/service/klassifikationen/ipc/ipcprojekt/einekurzegeschichtedesautomobils/geburtstagdesautos/index.html |title=Der Streit um den "Geburtstag" des modernen Automobils |language=de |trans-title=The fight over the birth of the modern automobile |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2014-12-22 |publisher=German Patent and Trade Mark Office |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170102082130/https://www.dpma.de/service/klassifikationen/ipc/ipcprojekt/einekurzegeschichtedesautomobils/geburtstagdesautos/index.html |archive-date=2017-01-02 |access-date=<!--Not stated--> }}</ref> It was patented in January 1886 and unveiled in 1886public later that year. The original cost of the vehicle in 1886 was 600 [[German gold mark|imperial German marks]],<ref>{{Cite news|last=Neil|first=Dan|date=2006-06-21|title=Before the Rumble Seat|language=en-US|website=Los Angeles Times|url=https://www.latimes.com/news/la-hy-125mbz21jun21-story.html|url-access=subscription|access-date=2020-05-02}}</ref> approximately 150 US dollars ({{Inflation|US|150|1885|fmt=eq|r=-2}}).

Two years after Karl Benz first drove the car in public in July 1886,<ref name="edn.com">[https://www.edn.com/karl-benz-drives-the-first-automobile-july-3-1886/ Karl Benz drives the first automobile 3 July 1886] edn.com</ref> Karl's wife [[Bertha Benz|Bertha]] demonstrated its feasibility in a trip from [[Mannheim]] to [[Pforzheim]] in August 1888,. shortlyAround beforethe itsame time, the Patent-Motorwagen became the first commercially available automobile in history in the late summer of 1888.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://scihi.org/carl-benz-automobile/ | title=Carl Benz and the Invention of the Automobile | date=29 January 2018 }}</ref> Émile Roger, who made Benz engines under license in France, was one of the first persons to buy Benz' car; from 1888, Roger was also the salesperson of the Benz Patent-Motorwagen in France, selling one to [[Émile Levassor]] in 1888.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hendrickson |first=Kenneth E. |title=The Encyclopedia of the Industrial Revolution in World History |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |year=2014 |isbn=9780810888883 |volume=3rd |pages=88}}</ref><ref name=Rauck1986>{{Cite magazine |last=Rauck |first=Max |date=1986 |title=Das 1. Auto ist 100 |trans-title=The first car is 100 years old |language=de |magazine=Kultur & Technik |publisher=Deutsches Museum |page=70}}</ref> The Patent-Motorwagen was shown at an exhibition in [[Munich]] in 1888, winning a gold medal, and at the [[1889 Paris Exposition]].<ref name=Rauck1986 />

[[Bertha Benz]], Karl's wife, whose dowry was said to have made a portion of contribution to finance the development of the Patent-Motorwagen,<ref>"Frauen in der Geschichte des Rechts&nbsp;– Von der Frühen Neuzeit bis zum Gegenwart", Ute Gerhard e.a., Beck'se Verlagsbuchhandlung, München 1997, {{ISBN|3-406-42866-5}}, p. 464</ref> was aware of the need for publicity. She took the Patent-Motorwagen No. 3 and drove it on the first long-distance internal combustion automobile road trip to demonstrate its feasibility. That trip occurred in early August 1888, when she took her sons Eugen and Richard, fifteen and fourteen years old, respectively, on a ride from Mannheim through [[Heidelberg]], and [[Wiesloch]], to her maternal hometown of [[Pforzheim]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHIFE4vOeEo |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211214/yHIFE4vOeEo |archive-date=2021-12-14 |url-status=live|title=Making of 'Carl & Bertha' (Film)|last=MercedesForum|date=8 May 2011|via=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}</ref>