Eureka ! The original “King of the Road”
Written by Christopher McCaa
On February 24, 2009, before a joint session of Congress, President Barack Obama attempted to buoy the spirit of a forlorn American citizenry and a beleaguered industry which was once the marrow of American manufacturing.
In his first State of The Union Address, the president focused his optimistic oratory on the ailing American automobile industry.
“We are committed to the goal of a re-tooled, re-imagined auto industry that can compete and win. Millions of jobs depend on it. Scores of communities depend on it. And I believe the nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it,” Obama said.
It may have been music to the ears of American car makers, but the statement met mine with a tinge of discordance. It was news to me that the land of my birth also claimed the car as its native son. It was also news I didn't believe.
After turning over a few historical stones, my suspicions were confirmed. President Obama had either made an honest historical error, or he needed to consider making a few personnel changes to his research team.
Though the image of the automobile is irrevocably linked with American culture, its bloodline stretches across the Atlantic to its European birthplace.
It all started in a bicycle shop in Germany, where a meeting between an engineer and cycling enthusiast, Karl Benz and store owners, Max Rose and Friedrich Wilhelm Eblinger resulted in the invention, and later the manufacture of the modern day automobile
After initially showing interest the field of locksmithing, Benz decided to head down a different career path; one that would help shape modern mobility.
After graduating from the University of Karlsruhe, where he enrolled at the age of 15, Benz embarked on an engineering career that began with a series of professional setbacks.
But his fortunes began to change when Benz was granted the patent for the two-stroke engine in 1879. In addition to the ingenious invention, he developed devices which became integral parts of the automobile engine: a speed regulation system, the spark plug, carburetor, clutch and even the gear shift.
And it was in 1883, after serendipity struck in the aforementioned bicycle shop in Mannheim, Germany, that his partnership with Rose and Eßlinger resulted in the industrial machine production company, Benz & Company Rheinische Gasmotoren-Fabrik, also known as Benz & Cie.
Benz & Cie was soon designing engines, many of which were built to run on gasoline. The company's success provided Benz with the resources to focus on the pursuit of the automobile, known then as the “horseless carriage.”
The lifelong bicycle enthusiast had ruminated for years on the possibility of creating a wheeled vehicle powered by a four-stroke engine and the time had come to bring his vision to fruition. His design of the “horseless carriage” ditched the beasts of burden and utilized a four-stroke engine located between the rear wheels.
In 1885, Benz completed the first model of the vehicle he called the Benz Patent Motorwagen. With the Motorwagen, he distinguished himself among his engineering peers as the definitive inventor of the vehicle.
In the years to come, variations of the Motorwagen emerged, each improving on the next. And in 1926, the company Daimler-Benz, was created. The company named their automobiles the Mercedes Benz after Mercedes Jellinek, the daughter of an engineer who helped develop the 1902 Mercedes-35hp.
Having created the definitive model for the automobile, Benz went on to serve the company in a managerial role until his death in 1929.
In his 84 years on the planet, Benz helped define modern day mobility and paved the way for car makers around the world.
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