Karl Benz

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Karl Friedrich Benz (November 25 1844 – April 4 1929) was a German automobile engineer, generally regarded as the inventor of the petrol-powered automobile. Another German contemporary, Gottlieb Daimler, also worked independently on the same type of invention, but Benz patented his work first and, after that, patented all of the major components that made the internal combustion engine feasible for use in automobiles.

In 1885, he created the Tri-Car, the first commercial automobile, powered by a gas engine, and later by petrol. Among other things, he invented the carburetor, the speed regulation system known also as an accelerator, ignition using sparks from a battery, the spark plug, the clutch, the gear shift, and the water radiator.

In 1896, Karl Benz designed and patented the first internal combustion boxer engine with horizontally-opposed pistons, which continues to be the design principle for high performance engines used in motorsports.

Benz founded the Benz Company, precursor of Daimler-Benz, Mercedes-Benz, and DaimlerChrysler. Before dying he would witness the explosion of automobile use during the 1920s, thanks to his inventions.

Early life

Karl Benz was born Karl Friedrich Michael Vaillant, in Karlsruhe, Germany to locomotive driver Johann George Benz and Josephine Vaillant. The couple was unwed at the time but married after the turn of the year in 1845. When Karl 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 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 Lyzeum. Next he studied in 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. He was graduated on July 9, 1864.

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 training 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 Factory and his first inventions (1871 to 1882)

In 1871, at the age of twenty-seven, Karl Benz joined August Ritter in launching a mechanical workshop in Mannheim, also dedicated to supplying construction materials: the Iron Foundry and Mechanical Workshop, later renamed, Factory for Machines for Sheet-metal Working.

The enterprise's first year was a complete disaster. Ritter turned out to be unreliable and local authorities confiscated the business. Benz then bought out Ritter's share in the company using the dowry provided by the father of his fiancée, Bertha Ringer.

In July 20, 1872 Benz and Ringer married, later having 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. To get more revenues, in 1878 he began to work on new patents. First, he concentrated all his efforts on creating a reliable gas two-stroke engine, based on Nikolaus Otto's design of the four-stroke engine . A patent on the design by Otto had been declared void. Benz finished his engine on 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 regulation 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 to 1883)

Problems arose again when the banks at Mannheim demanded that Benz's Gas Factory enterprise be incorporated due to the high production costs it maintained. Benz was 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 agreements, Benz was unhappy because he was left with merely 5% of the shares and a modest Director position. Worst of all, his ideas weren't considered when designing new products, so he withdrew from that corporation just one year later, in 1883.

Benz & Company and the Tri-Car 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. Quickly growing to twenty-five employees, it soon began to produce gas engines as well.

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 created a tricycle and mounted a four-stroke engine of his own design between the rear wheels. Power was transmitted by means of two roller chains to the rear axle. Benz finished his creation in 1885 and named it the Tri-Car Motorwagen. It was the first automobile entirely designed as such, not simply a motorized carriage, which is why Karl Benz is regarded by many as the inventor of the automobile.

The beginnings of the Tri-Car in 1885 were less than spectacular. The tests often gathered many onlookers who laughed mockingly when Tri-Car smashed against a wall because it was so difficult to control. The Tri-Car was patented on January 29, 1886 as DRP-37435: "automobile fueled by gas"Template:Ref. The first successful tests were carried out in the early summer of 1886 on public roads. The next year Karl Benz created the Tri-Car Model 2 which had several modifications, and in 1887, the definitive Model 3 with wooden wheels was introduced.

Benz began to sell the vehicle—advertising it as the Benz Patent Motorwagen—making it the first commercially available automobile in history. The first customer, in late-summer of 1888, is alleged later to have been committed to an insane asylum. The second buyer, the Parisian Emile Roger, who purchased an 1888 Benz, had a profound effect on Benz's success. Roger had been building Benz engines under a license from Karl Benz for several years, and in 1888, decided to add his automobiles to the line. Many of the early Benz three-wheelers were indeed built in France and sold by Roger, since the Parisians were more inclined to purchase automobiles at the time.

Early customers faced significant problems. At the time, gasoline was available only from pharmacies that sold it as a cleaning product, and they didn't stock it in large quantities. The early-1888 version of the Tri-Car had to be pushed when driving up a steep hill. This limitation was rectified after Berta Benz made her famous trip driving one of the vehicles a great distance and suggested the addition of another gear to her husband. The popular story goes that, on the morning of August 5, 1888, Berta Benz took this vehicle (without the knowledge of her husband), and embarked on a 106 km (fifty miles) trip from Mannheim to Pforzheim to visit her mother, taking her sons Eugen and Richard with her. In addition to having to scrounge for fuel at pharmacies on the way, she also overcame various technical problems and finally arrived at nightfall announcing the achievement to Karl Benz by telegram. Today the event is celebrated in Germany with an antique car rally.

Benz's Model 3 made its widescale debut to the world in the 1889 World's Fair in Paris, and about twenty-five three-wheelers were built during the period between 1886 and 1893.

Benz & Company expansion

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The great demand for static internal combustion engines forced Karl Benz to enlarge the factory, and in 1886 a new building located on Waldhofstrasse (operating until 1908) was added. Benz & Company. had grown in the interim from 50 employees (1890) to 430 (1899). During the last years of the 19th century—Benz & Company was the largest automobile company in the world—with 572 units produced in 1899.

Because of its size, in 1899 the Benz & Company became a joint-stock company with the arrival of Friedrich Von Fischer and Julius Ganß, who came aboard as members of the Board of Management. Ganß worked in the commercialization department.

The new directors recommended that Karl Benz should create a less expensive car suitable for mass production. In 1893 Benz created the Victoria, a two-passenger car with a 3 hp engine, which could reach the top speed of 11 mph) and a pivotal front axle operated by a roller-chained tiller for steering. The model was successful with 45 units sold in 1893.

In 1894 Benz improved this design in his new Velo model. This car was produced on such a remarkably large scale for the era—1200 units from 1894 to 1901—that it is considered the first mass-produced automobile. The Benz Velo also participated in the first car race: Paris to Rouen 1894.

In 1895 Benz designed the first truck in history, with some of the units later modified by the first bus company: the Netphener, becoming the first buses in history.

In 1896, Karl Benz was granted a patent for his design of the first boxer engine with horizontally-opposed pistons. His design created an engine 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 boxer engines and are also known as, horizontally-opposed engines. This continues to be the design principle for high performance, automobile racing engines such as Porsches.

Although Daimler died in 1900, competition with Daimler Motors (DMG) in Stuttgart began to challenge Benz & Company when the DMG and its main designer, Wilhelm Maybach, built the Mercedes-35hp in 1900. Benz tried to counter with his Parsifil car, introduced in 1903 with 2 vertical cylinders and top speed of 37 mph. 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 on January 24, 1903, although he remained on the Board of Management until his death. Benz's sons Eugen and Richard also left the company, but Richard returned in 1904 as designer of passenger vehicles. By 1904 the sales of the Benz & Company were up to 3480 cars.

Benz-Söhne (1906 to 1923)

Karl Benz and his son Eugen then moved to live in Ladenburg, and with their own capital, founded the company Benz Sons (Benz-Söhne) in 1906, producing automobiles and gas engines. The latter type was replaced by petrol engines because lack of demand.

The Benz-Söhne cars were of good quality and became popular in London as taxis. In 1912, Karl Benz liquidated all of his shares in Benz-Söhne and left the company to Eugen and Richard. On November 25 of 1914, the 70 year-old Karl Benz was awarded an honorary Doctor title by the Karlsruhe University.

Image:BenzTeardrop1923.jpg 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 car race: Paris to Rouen 1894. 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 aerodynamically designed, "teardrop" body introduced at the 1923 European Grand Prix at Monza.

In the last year of the company, 1923, 350 units were built. Finally, in the following year, 1924, Karl Benz built two additional 8/25 hp units tailored for his personal use, which he never sold; they are still preserved.

Toward Daimler-Benz and the Mercedes Benz of 1926

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During the First World War, Benz & Company and Daimler Motors (DMG) had both massively increased their production for the war effort. After the conflict ended, both manufacturers resumed their normal activities, but the German economy was chaotic. The automobile was considered a luxury item and as such was charged with a 15 % extra tax. At the same time, the country suffered a lack of petroleum. To survive this difficult situation, in 1919 Benz & Company proposed a cooperation through its representative Karl Jahn, but DMG rejected the proposal in December.

The German economic crisis worsened. In 1923 Benz & Company produced 1,382 units in Mannheim, while DMG made 1,020 in Stuttgart. The average cost of a car was 25 million marks because of rapid inflation. Negotiations between the two companies resumed and in 1924 signed an Agreement of Mutual Interest valid until the year 2000. Both enterprises standardized design, production, purchasing, sales, and advertising —- marketing their car models jointly, although keeping their respective brands.

In 1926 (June 28) Benz & Company and DMG finally merged as the Daimler-Benz company, baptizing all its automobiles Mercedes Benz in honor of the most important model of the DMG cars, the Mercedes. The name of that model had been selected because of ten-year-old Mercedes Jellinek, the daughter of Emil Jellinek, one of DMG's partners. The car's logo consisted 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 new logo was labeled, Mercedes-Benz. The next year, 1927, the number of units sold tripled to 7918 and the diesel was launched for truck production. In 1928 the Mercedes Benz SS was presented.

In April 4 1929, Karl Benz died at his home in Ladenburg at the age of 84 from a bronchial inflammation of his lungs.

Trivia

1. There is no evidence that Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler knew about each other's earliest achievements. They both were working independently toward the same invention. The first Benz of 1885 and the Daimler Stahlradwagen of 1889 both borrowed from bicycle technology. Daimler used the hollow tubes of the frame of the 1889 car as a mechanism for cooling the car: water flowed through them. The early Peugeots, fitted with Panhard-built Daimler engines, used the technology of the 1889 Stahlradwagen.
2. Benz's last home, at Ladenburg, is used as the headquarters of the Gottlieb Daimler & Karl Benz Foundation, with many annual events held there.
3. Karl vs. Carl: Two spellings of Benz's first name can be found in places or institutions named after him. All of the official municipal registries show, Karl, such as on Benz's birth registration, his entry to the Polytechnikum, and his first patent (1879). At the end of the 19th century, however, the French spelling of names came into fashion in Germany and it seems that even Benz began to use, Carl, as seen in his 1882 patent or the Ladenburg company Benz Sons. At least, it was recorded as such—so Benz may have used both forms—or, perhaps the entries were made by others following the vogue. The German Orthographic Reform of 1901 generally replaced use of the French spelling, Carl, with the former German spelling convention, Karl, and DaimlerChrysler has adopted the use of the birth name spelling, using Karl Benz.
4. There are several Carl Benz schools throughout Germany, among which are two professional training schools at Mannheim and Koblenz, two high schools at Ladenburg and Berlin, as well as several primary schools, many of those found in the region of Karlsruhe and at Stuttgart, cf. a google search for "Carl Benz Schule".
5. Karl Benz's great grandson was enlisted in the United States military.

Notes

1. Template:NoteDRP's patent No. 37435 (PDF, 561 kB, German) was filed January 29, 1886 and granted November 2, 1886, thus taking effect January 29.

External links

• Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz Foundation
• Karl Benz on 3-wheelers.combs:Karl Benz

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