Carl Benz: Know all about the man regarded as ‘father of automobile industry’

New Delhi: Carl Benz is one of the legendary names when it comes to the automobile industry. The brand Mercedes-Benz is synonymous with luxury and comfort. But its origin lies in the unification of two companies, and one of them was founded by Carl Benz. Carl did not come from a well-off family, but his talent and intelligence meant that he was always going to leave his mark when it came to automobiles and bring a revolution in that sector. He left behind a legacy that would become a part of history, that would immortalise his name and works. In this article, we will take a look at the life and works of Carl Benz.

Carl Benz: The father of automobile industry

• Born on November 25, 1844, in Muhlburg, Germany, Carl lost his father to pneumonia when he was just two years old and grew up amid poverty. He was a brilliant student and attended the local school in Karlsruhe. When Carl was nine years old, he began his education at the scientifically oriented Lyceum. Later, he decided to study locomotive engineering like his father, and in 1860, at age 15, he passed the entrance exam for mechanical engineering at the Karlsruhe polytechnical school, which he subsequently attended. Benz graduated at the age of 19.
• His years of professional training did not go well, and finally, in 1871, his life took a turn. He was 27 years old when he joined August Ritter in launching the Iron Foundry and Mechanical Workshop in Mannheim, later renamed Factory for Machines for Sheet-metal Working. Even though the start of the enterprise went horribly wrong and his fiancee Bertha Ringer had to buy bought out Ritter’s share in the company, who turned out to be an unreliable partner, using her dowry, it was a valuable learning curve for Karl who would use that experience in the latter stages of his career. He married Bertha in 1872, and the couple had five children.
• Carl had an eagerness to build new engines, and he began to work on new patents. First, he concentrated on creating a reliable petrol two-stroke engine. Benz finished his two-stroke engine in 1879 and was granted a patent for it in 1880. He soon patented the speed regulation system, the ignition using sparks with battery, the spark plug, the carburettor, the clutch, the gear shift, and the water radiator.
• But the banks at Mannheim demanded that Bertha and Carl Benz’s enterprise be incorporated due to its high production costs and they had to forge a partnership with photographer Emil Buhler and his brother (a cheese merchant), to get additional bank support. The company became the joint-stock company Gasmotoren Fabrik Mannheim in 1882. But Carl was unhappy in the company, so he withdrew from that corporation in 1883.
• In 1883, Carl Benz, Max Rose and Friedrich Wilhelm Eblinger founded a new company producing industrial machines: Benz & Companie Rheinische Gasmotoren-Fabrik usually referred to as Benz & Cie, which soon became a success. A satisfied Benz tried to use the technology of bicycle to create an automobile. He finished his creation in 1885 and named it “Benz Patent-Motorwagen”. It was patented on January 29, 1886. After early hiccups, the first successful tests on public roads were carried out in the early summer of 1886. The next year Benz created the Motorwagen Model 2, which had several modifications, and in 1889, the definitive Model 3 with wooden wheels was introduced. He began to sell it in 1888, making it the first commercially available automobile in history.
• The early 1888 version of the Motorwagen had only two gears and could not climb hills unaided. This limitation was rectified after Bertha Benz made her famous trip driving one of the vehicles a great distance and suggested to her husband the addition of the third gear for climbing hills. In the course of this trip, she also invented brake pads. The world’s first-ever long-distance automobile trip was undertaken by Bertha Benz using a Model 3. She took the trip with her sons Eugen and Richard, and it turned out to be an iconic journey. Today, the event is celebrated every two years in Germany with an antique automobile rally.
• With time, Benz & Cie. grew in size, and during the last years of the 19th century, it was the largest automobile company in the world with 572 units produced in 1899. Benz sold the four-wheel, two-seat Victoria, and produced the Velocipede, later known as the Benz Velo which participated in the world’s first automobile race. In 1895, Carl designed the first truck with an internal combustion engine in history. Benz also built the first motor buses in history in 1895. In 1896, he was granted a patent for his design of the first flat engine, whose design is still used by Porsche, Subaru, and some high-performance engines used in racing cars.
• Carl Benz, Bertha Benz, and their son, Eugen, moved 10 kilometres east of Mannheim to live in nearby Ladenburg, and solely with their own capital, founded the private company, C. Benz Sons in 1906, producing automobiles and gas engines. In 1912, Carl liquidated all of his shares in Benz Sons and left the family-held company in Ladenburg to Eugen and Richard, but he remained as a director of Benz & Cie. In 1923, the economic crisis in Germany heavily affected the Benz & Cie. and its rival Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (DMG). To overcome their woes, the two companies negotiated and in 1924 they signed an “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 & Cie. and DMG finally merged as the Daimler-Benz company. Carl Benz was a member of the new Daimler-Benz board of management for the remainder of his life. A new logo was created in 1926, consisting of three-pointed star traditional laurels from the Benz logo, and the brand of all of its automobiles was labelled Mercedes-Benz. Model names would follow the brand name in the same convention as today. Carl Benz breathed his last on April 4, 1929, at his home in Ladenburg at the age of 84 from a bronchial inflammation. The Benz home now has been designated as historic and is used as a scientific meeting facility for a nonprofit foundation, the Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz Foundation, that honours both Bertha and Carl Benz for their roles in the history of automobiles.