Carl Benz (1844 - 1929)

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Carl Benz


Carl Benz
Carl Benz
CARL BENZ, who descended from a line of mayors and blacksmiths, was born in 1844; he was an inventor, certainly, but equally a romantic. He is the man most entitled to be called the inventor of the motor car.

He was born Karl Friedrich Michael Vaillant, in 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.

Carl's father, who was a railway engine-driver, died when Carl was two. Despite living in near poverty, Carl's devoted mother ensured her son attended some of the best schools in Germany. He 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. He 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. This was three years before Daimler became head engineer there, although the two never met. Benz then did obligatory work as a trainee, at shop-floor wages, for several firms.

After his mother's death, he met a girl named Bertha and, thanks to her advance dowry, co-founded a Mannheim engineering firm in 1871. A year later, having split with his partner, he married Bertha, the major influence on his life. Then disaster struck and they faced bankruptcy in 1877, as Carl was attempting to build his first engine.

Inventing The 2-Stroke Engine



Since Otto had patented the four-stroke, Benz designed a two-stroke engine but it refused to run. Bertha insisted they try just once more after New Year's Eve supper 1879. It fired and 'sang' as Benz recalled in his memoirs. At first he was refused a German engine patent, although items basic to all engines, such as his 1882 speed regulator, were protected in Germany and abroad.

A dedicated improver, Benz realized flame ignition was dangerous for stationary engines. He worked out a battery system and even built his own spark plugs. With funds from a court photographer, he opened a gas-engine factory but found that his partners were chiefly interested in profits. Leaving after three months, Benz found two more backers from his cycle club. He decided that Benz & Co would build engines - one, two and four-horsepower models by 1885 - which underwrote his car dreams, already a sore point with the partners.

A Four Stroke Dwarf In Weight but Titan In Power



Benz had turned to four-stroke work in 1884, seeking 'a dwarf in weight, a titan in power' which would be integral to his vehicle; this was his unswerving goal. A three-wheeler was finished (and driven into the wall during its first test) in late 1885, only months after the engine first ran. Early tests were made without a fuel tank, using petrol in the surface (sponge-type) carburettor. His original horizontal, water-cooled, cast-iron single produced about two or three horsepower at a then-high 250 rpm.

The first Benz made its debut in 1885
The first Benz made its debut in 1885, and featured a water-cooled cast-iron single cylinder engine developing 0.9 hp at 500 rpm. It had a top speed of only 9 mph.

Benz 1888 Update 10 mph 1.5 bhp version
This photograph is of a later version built in 1888, and was good for 1.5 bhp and a top speed of 10 mph.

Benz Velo
The model that made Benz, the Velo.

1910 4 Cylinder Benz
This is a 1910 model Benz, and featured a 4 cylinder 40 bhp engine.

1914 2 Litre 4 cylinder Benz Tourer
By 1914 the Benz had evolved a long way from the original 3 wheel tiller steering version. Seen here is a 2 litre 4 cylinder four-seater tourer.

1921 Benz 6/18 PS
1921 Benz 6/18 PS.

Burman Blitzen Racing Car
Not the famed Blitzen Benz (see below), but one of Burman's Blitzen racing cars.


21 litre 4 cylinder Blitzen engine This is what 21 litres of 4 cylinder engine looks like, Blitzen Style.

The Flywheel-Driven Generator



Benz was not satisfied with Model 1, nor was he with Model 2, though it had a sort of carburettor float, and Model 3 gave only 1.5 hp. Seeking better ignition, he turned to a flywheel-driven generator and a patent was granted in 1888 for his current regulator. Benz was proud that 'short visits' did not require that you would have to stop the 'absolutely safe' engine. Pulling a belt-control arm back from drive to the mid-point gave 'neutral'. Another notch to the rear brought brakes of a sort into action.

Neutral and the Differential



To Carl, a car was not usable unless capable of negotiating any road, so he designed a differential too. The initial Benz had a steel-tube frame, elliptic rear springs and 'engine access'. The wheelbase was 57' I in, the weight 585 lb. Unable to solve car steering, Benz used a single front wheel, moved by a cog and twin racks. The press was largely favourable, though the German Yearbook of Natural Science for 1888 dismissed the Benz as an idea with no future.

Bertha Travels Cross-Country - Illegally



Bertha and their two oldest sons had already proved otherwise. Leaving Carl asleep at home, they left Mannheim at 5 am one August morning to become the first cross-country motor-car travellers. The trio bought apothecary petrol, had a cobbler replace brake block facings, asked an innkeeper for the way around one mountain and pushed up another hill-to reach Pforzheim, near Stuttgart, after dark.

Carl didn't scold them, but he did insist on them returning the drive chain necessary for his demonstration car at the Munich technical exhibition. He had permission for drives around town between 2 and 4 pm, giving rides to the daring, provided that the police heard no complaints.

At home, the Duchy of Baden had banned self-propelled road vehicles in 1887 - the year one friend first put a Benz engine in his boat. Not until 1893 was Benz allowed on the highways: at 7 mph on open, straight roads, or 3½ mph in towns and on corners (thus Bertha was not only the first lady driver, but also the first illegal one). Such bans hardly boosted sales. It was 1895 before Benz could legally move any faster.

Following acclaim and a gold medal at the Munich exhibition, plus an illustrated story in a Leipzig paper, the company expected to sell many cars but customers were still rare. One father cancelled his son's order on the grounds that the boy had been acting crazily lately.

Benz' partners withdrew at this point but, once again, he carried on regardless. He also developed, after two years work, a three-piece front axle with steering knuckles; this work culminated in an 1893 patent.

1893 was also the year in which the company sold 500 stationary engines, which brought in substantial income. The first four-wheeler Benz car was called a Victoria and was strictly a 'horseless carriage'. One of these cars was proven in 1894 by von Liebig, a Bohemian textile magnate, who drove his to Rheims.

During the first 450 of the 750 miles, covered in 57 hours, he used 310 lb of fuel and 330 gallons of water. This 1543 lb car had a 2.9-Iitre, one-cylinder engine developing 3 hp at 400 rpm. Sold as a two-seater for 3800 marks, it was available with extras too, a small third seat or a 4-5 hp engine.

Scaling The Victoria Down To Become The Velo



Benz' master stroke, however, was scaling the Victoria down to become the Velo. This soon made him the most successful motor-car producer of his age. In 1895, the company built 135 vehicles, 62 of them Velos. France bought 49 cars and a Benz won the first American 'race', albeit by default.

This 2000-mark Velo appeared with 1.5 and later 2 and 3/4 hp engines and two gears (third gear and pneumatic tyres being optional) but power soon grew. Very light at 615 lb, the Velo encouraged the gentle sport of motoring which Benz had always wanted.

Growth was satisfying at first: in 1898 Benz sold 434 cars and by the end of 1899 the company had delivered over 2000. There were several models: the up-to-6 hp Phaeton with four seats in two rows or a Vis a Vis (face to face) with a front bench facing the driver.

By 1899 the latter had side doors and did 17 mph. The first Benz twin had two singles side by side but Carl soon designed his smoother opposed twin. This powered cars like the Dos a Dos (back to back), offering 5--10 hp at 750 rpm, with high-tension ignition, single carburettor and 25 mph top speed.

Panel Vans, Overland Buses and Trucks



Around 1900, Benz also built panel vans, 'overland' buses and proper trucks. The Benz name may have become globally recognized, yet Carl wasn't happy. Racing was becoming important, to car manufacturers and the company had only a French importer, Emile Roger, to carry the Benz banner, odd entries apart. 1900 was the best year of all for Benz, with 603 deliveries, but the firm sold only 385 vehicles in 1901, while directors Benz and Julius Ganss clashed regularly.

Ganss ignored the founder to order a vertical twin from their design office. Finished late in 1902, this fell short of Benz standards, so Ganss hired Marius Barbarou to build-up his own staff in France and produce a range of cars - including a racer.

Carl was bitterly opposed to 'strangers' in his domain. He backed the original German design office in direct confrontation. The French finished their car first, but it was faulty so they quit in 1904. By then, Benz himself had withdrawn from the firm, only returning as a director when Ganss left in 1904.

Meanwhile, designs had been pooled to build a new car, to be known as the Parsifal. This was a radical departure, with two upright cylinders cast as a pair up front and shaft drive to the rear. A four-cylinder Parsifal racer gave as much as 60 hp.

Eugen and Richard Benz



Well before 1908, when a 120 hp Benz (forerunner of the Blitzen) took second place to a Daimler in the French GP, the firm of C. Benz & Sons was well established in the romantic city of Ladenburg. Carl's sons, Eugen and Richard, joined their father and finally took over the company in 1912.

Following the war, the German economy suffered a brutal decline. During 1923 Benz & Co. 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.

Daimler Benz Agreement of Mutual Interest



Karl Benz built two additional 8/25 hp units, tailored for his personal use, which he never sold (and are still preserved), but the difficulties faced by Benz and another German manufacturer, BMG, meant that negotiations for a merger (muted earlier but resumed and in 1924) would see a signed 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 & Co. and DMG finally merged as the Daimler-Benz company, baptizing all of its automobiles, Mercedes-Benz, honoring the most important model of the DMG automobiles, the 1902 Mercedes-35hp, along with the Benz name.

The name of that DMG model had been selected after ten-year-old Mercedes Jellinek, the daughter of Emil Jellinek 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.

Carl 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 were 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 the diesel line was launched for truck production. In 1928 the Mercedes-Benz SS was presented. On April 4, 1929, Karl Benz died at home in Ladenburg at the age of eighty-four from a bronchial inflammation.

Until her death on May 5, 1944 at the age of 95, Bertha Benz continued to reside in their last home. Members of the family resided in the home for thirty more years. The Benz home has now 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.

The First Mercedes



The first Mercedes was the result of a discussion by three men, an Austrian diplomat, Emile Jellinek, who was more interested in cars than diplomacy; a designer, Wilhelm Maybach; and Paul Daimler, son of the famous Gottlieb Daimler. Jellinek was enthusiastic about the dawn of motoring age and believed that the motor car was of major importance for the future.

In 1897 he had already made a special journey to Cannstatt where he visited the Daimler factory and brought back a car to the French Riviera, causing quite a stir. At the meeting with Maybach and Paul Daimler, Jellinek outlined what he had in mind and agreed that, if Maybach would design a car along those lines, he would be prepared to take delivery of the companies entire production.

Maybach set to work on the new design and, when the first car appeared at Nice in 1901, it amazed everybody with its fine performance. Overnight it made every other car seem five years out of date. The ideas of these three men revolutionised motor car design the world over.

Jellinek decided to call the new car "Mercedes", a Spanish Christian name meaning "grace", and a name he obviously quite liked, as he had chosen for his daughter. Jellinek was also acutely aware that the French were prejudiced against any car with a German name, and so Mercedes was a far better fit. Since Jellinek was a big figure in society there and enjoyed good relation's with the international financial world, it was not long before prospective buyers were taking an interest in the Daimler cars.

The Mercedes Symbol



The Mercedes trademark was registered in 1902 - after Karl Daimler (not Carl Benz) died in 1900 at the age of 66.  Daimlers two sons then managed the company - and they remembered that their father had only once sent a postcard to their mother which had a star marked on the house where he was living at the time, a place called Deutz.

He made the comment on the card that "eventually this star would rise out and shine over his work".  In June 1909, the then chairman applied for a trademark of both a three pointed star and four pointed star.  Both trademarks were granted, but only one was ever used. This trademark was soon placed on the from of the car as an radiator emblem.

Also see:
Honour Roll - Founding Fathers Of The Automotive Industry | Mercedes-Benz SL Heritage | Mercedes 28/60 45/50hp
1910 Blitzen Benz
The 1910 Blitzen Benz, as featured in our World Land Speed Records section (you have read that we hope!).

A streamlined Blitzen Benz, driven by Bob Burman, which achieved a top speed of 140 mph at Daytona
A streamlined Blitzen Benz, driven by Bob Burman, which achieved a top speed of 140 mph at Daytona.
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