The Benz Patent-Motorwagen, built in 1885, is widely regarded as the world's first production automobile, that is, a vehicle designed to be propelled by an internal combustion engine. The original cost of the vehicle in 1885 was 600 imperial German marks, approximately 150 US dollars. The vehicle was awarded the German patent number 37435, for which Karl Benz applied on 29 January 1886. Following official procedures, the date of the application became the patent date for the invention once the patent was granted, which occurred in November of that year. Benz's wife, Bertha, financed the development process. Benz unveiled his invention to the public on 3 July 1886, on the Ringstrasse in Mannheim. About 25 Patent-Motorwagen were built between 1886 and 1893.
Specifications
After developing a successful gasoline-powered two-strokepiston engine in 1873, Benz focused on developing a motorized vehicle while maintaining a career as a designer and manufacturer of stationary engines and their associated parts. The Benz Patent-Motorwagen was a three-wheeled automobile with a rear-mounted engine. The vehicle contained many new inventions. It was constructed of steel tubing with woodwork panels. The steel-spoked wheels and solid rubber tires were Benz's own design. Steering was by way of a toothed rack that pivoted the unsprung front wheel. Fully elliptic springs were used at the back along with a beam axle and chain drive onboth sides. A simple belt system served as a single-speed transmission, varying torque between an open disc and drive disc. The first Motorwagen used the Benz single-cylinder four-stroke engine with trembler coil ignition. This new engine produced at 250 rpm in the Patent-Motorwagen, although later tests by the University of Mannheim showed it to be capable of at 400 rpm. It was an extremely light engine for the time, weighing about. Although its open crankcase and drip oiling system would be alien to a modern mechanic, its use of a pushrod-operated poppet valve for exhaust would be quite familiar. A large horizontal flywheel stabilized the single-cylinder engine's power output. An evaporative carburettor was controlled by a sleeve valve to regulate power and engine speed. The first model of the Motorwagen had not been built with a carburettor, rather a basin of fuel soaked fibers that supplied fuel to the cylinder by evaporation. Benz later made more models of the Motorwagen: model number 2 had engine, and model number 3 had engine, allowing the vehicle to reach a maximum speed of approximately. The chassis was improved in 1887 with the introduction of wooden-spoke wheels, a fuel tank, and a manual leather shoe brake on the rear wheels. for the first long-distance journey by automobile
Bertha Benz's Trip
, Karl's wife, whose dowry financed their enterprise, 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. In Germany, a parade of antique automobiles celebrates this historic trip of Bertha Benz every two years. On February 25, 2008, the Bertha Benz Memorial Route, following the route of Bertha Benz's journey, was officially approved as a Tourist or Scenic Route by the German authorities as a route of industrial heritage of mankind. The of signposted route leads from Mannheim via Heidelberg to Pforzheim and back.
