The Industrial Revolution began to create its first automobile through the rapid technological advancement which combined modern technology with traditional inventiveness. The common practice requires people to acknowledge one individual for their accomplishments although Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot deserves respect for creating the three-wheeled steam-powered dray in 1770 the established tradition awards the recognition to Carl Benz. Benz constructed his initial vehicle which used a petrol engine to power another three-wheeled design in 1885 but he obtained a patent for it in 1886 and that official acknowledgment established 1886 as the official starting point of the automotive industry.
The patent
Benz & Co, which Carl established as his second business, submitted its most important patent application on 29 January 1886 and received the patent rights approximately nine months later on 2 November. The application stated that the design aimed to operate light and small vessels which operate with a capacity of one to four passengers. Benz included a drawing of 'a small vehicle, similar to a tricycle, built for two people' which described the machine he had already built.
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The Great Drive
Benz had kept his invention hidden from others because he wanted to keep its details secret. He initially tested his creation at night time according to reports. He drove his vehicle through Mannheim streets on July 3 1886 according to Mercedes-Benz because he was surrounded by confused Sunday walkers. The small publicity campaign which they conducted in August 1888 became totally overshadowed when Bertha left Mannheim with her sons Eugen and Richard to drive her Model 3 Patent Motorwagen which she used to visit her mother living in Pforzheim.
Gottlieb Daimler
The relationship between Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz remained unknown to people during their lifetime because both men shared exceptional engineering skills which created their existence in the same historical period. Daimler created a single-cylinder 264cc gas engine which people began to call the 'grandfather clock' because its vertical design and extremely undersquare configuration used a 58mm bore and 100mm stroke. The Riding Car machine shown in the picture used this technology which became patented in 1885 before the Patent Motorwagen yet the invention qualified as a motorcycle because it operated on two wheels and used an internal-combustion engine system.
Benz Victoria
Benz developed a steering system which he considered to be satisfactory because it could steer two front wheels. His company introduced its first four-wheeler in 1893.
The Victoria had two seat options which allowed either two passengers or four passengers to ride, with the additional passengers sitting up front while facing backward in the four-seat configuration.
The four-seat version (pictured here with Carl and Bertha facing in the direction of travel) was appropriately known as the Vis-à-Vis, the French term for 'face to face'.
Another Great Drive
The first person to buy a Benz Victoria was the 21-year-old Baron Theodor von Liebieg, an early motoring enthusiast from what is now the Czech city of Liberec but was then Reichenberg in Austria-Hungary. Von Liebieg and Dr Franz Stranský started their expedition in July 1894 which traveled farther than Bertha Benz's journey but lacked her level of historical importance. Von Liebieg and Stranský left Liberec on 16 July and arrived in von Liebieg’s mother’s home town of Gondorf in Germany on 22 July, having stopped at Mannheim to visit Carl Benz on the way.
Benz Velo
The 21st century treats building and selling 1000 units of one model as a minor achievement while the 19th century found it to be an exceptional accomplishment. The Velo which people call velocipede or velociped according to their spoken language proved to be less expensive than the Victoria. Mercedes-Benz considers this model to be its first mass-produced vehicle because of its widespread customer demand.
The First Bus
The world knows Carl Benz as the inventor of the first automobile. His company developed what many people consider to be the first bus. The service started in March 1895 after its December 1894 commissioning established a route that connected Siegen to Deuz through Netphen. The bus experienced maintenance difficulties because of its design. The bus engine produced 5bhp power, which proved insufficient to move the heavy vehicle up inclined surfaces, forcing passengers to exit the bus and assist in its movement.
Delivery Vehicles
Benz started his van manufacturing business in 1896 because he wanted to discover new methods for utilizing his technological innovations. The first unit of this vehicle which used the Victoria chassis needed new body design work to create a unique appearance because multiple body styles were developed for this vehicle. The Combination vehicle which derived from Velo design contained a detachable body which enabled users to convert it into another vehicle type while its maximum payload capacity of 300 kilograms (661 pounds) made it less efficient than his larger counterpart which could carry 600 kilograms (1323 pounds).
