Karl Benz (1844-1929): Inventor of motor car

The Benz car stemmed from over a century of experimental work.Karl Benz was the first to weave together the many threads to produce a commercially successful vehicle.

KARL BENZ was born on November 26, 1844 in Karlsruhe, Germany, the son of an engine driver. His father died when Karl was two years old. He was educated at the Karlsruhe Kyzeum and polytechnic.

Benz started his career at 21 as an ordinary worker in a local machineshop. He seemed to have consciously shaped his career, moving from mechanical work on steam engines to design work with a firm of engineers and iron-founders, Schiwizer & Co. at Mannheim. Then he joined the Benkiser brothers at Pforzheim in 1868.

In 1871 Benz returned to Mannheim and set up a small machine tool works. Faced with financial crisis in 1877, he turned towards the development of some new machine which would effect immediate time-saving. He saw the ready solution in the internal combustion engine; but due to the litigation between the two inventors, Alphonse Beau and Otto, (TheHindu, October 19, 2000) there was further delay which caused severe financial difficulties. Benz produced his first two- stroke 0.75 kw, 1 HP engine in his factory.

The revocation of Otto's patent in 1886, when it became available to him, led Benz to design a four-stroke engine specifically for vehicular use. He patented in the same year `a motor-car with gas engine drive'.

The engine gave an output 0.75 HP at 250 rpm, and achieved a speed of 5 kilometres per hour during a road journey (of 90 metre) on private ground adjoining his Mannheim workshop. Benz believed that his vehicle would be a completely new system - not a carriage with an engine replacing the horse!

The improvements created a turning point in automobile history. The engine had a massive fly-wheel and was mounted horizontally in the rear, using electric ignition by coil and battery. The cooling system consisted of a cylinder jacket in which water boiled away, being topped up when necessary.

Benz fitted a carburettor of his own design, which vaporized the fuel over a hot spot. Benz put on the road his three-wheeled Tri- car, which was hailed as the world's first vehicle propelled by an internal combustion engine. He exhibited the car at the Paris Fair of 1889 but it aroused little interest.

Like most innovators, Benz had to contend with apathy and official hostility. There was little demand for his Tri-cars at that time because of the public's general rejection of `such monsters' and the severe restrictions placed on their use on public roads. For instance, British law framed mainly for steam engines, required that all such vehicles be preceded by a man carrying a red flag and move not faster than 4 mph.

Benz laid down his first four-wheeled model in 1891; by 1895 he could build a range of vehicles that ran at speeds of 15 mph, that were strong, inexpensive and simple to operate. The sales increased. 4000 numbers of the `Benz Velo Comfortable' were sold at the price of œ135.

Benz and Co became a thriving firm and in 1899, it was converted into a limited company. In 1901 there was disagreement among the directors; Benz retired from the Board in 1904 and settled at Ladenburg, where he died on April 4, 1929.The company that Benz founded became world famous for its high performance cars, racing cars and luxury limousines.

In 1926, it merged with the other equally renowned firm of Daimler, which had developed from similar beginnings, to form the Daimler-Benz Company.

R. Parthasarathy

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