Karl benz biography inventor

Invented and patented the world’s first gasoline-powered automobile in 1886

Received a Gold Medal at the 1888 Munich Engineering Exposition for his car, the Patent Motorwagen

Founded Benz & Cie., which became the world’s largest manufacturer of automobiles in 1900

Karl Benz is widely recognized as the inventor of the gasoline-powered automobile. In 1871, after graduating from a German technical college and working in machine shops, Benz established a machine tool manufacturing company with partner, August Ritter. When Ritter wanted out of their agreement, Benz’s future wife, Bertha, used her dowry to save the company. She was to remain his strongest supporter during 16 years of financial hardship while Benz dedicated himself to the creation of a dependable vehicle. Inspired by Nikolaus Otto’s engine innovations, Benz developed a commercially successful 2-stroke engine. He then designed a three-wheeled vehicle and a 4-stroke engine to power it. Benz patented his car in 1886, but was determined to perfect its design before beginning production. Convinced by Bertha that his car was ready (after making a test drive herself), Benz entered it in the Munich Engineering Exposition in 1888 and received the highest honor. Taking his newly acclaimed vehicle to the streets of Munich, Benz offered test rides and attrached crowds who followed him in breathless awe. One newspaper reported, “Seldom, if ever, have passers-by in the streets of our city seen a more startling sight.”

German engineer Carl Benz was the first to design a car around the internal combustion engine rather than adding an engine to an existing wagon or carriage, a critical insight in auto evolution.

In 1883, Benz partnered with co-investors to establish Benz & Cie. to market a stationary two-stroke engine he had developed. Its success allowed Benz to focus on developing a lighter engine for vehicles. The two-stroke engine was impractical for this purpose, so Benz set to work on increasing the speed of the four-stroke engine by developing the ignition and valve control.

By 1886, Benz had built a gasoline-powered three-wheeled vehicle, the first to combine an internal combustion engine with an integrated chassis. The two rear wheels supported the 0.75 hp strong, single-cylinder engine, and the front wheel was connected to the steering tiller inside the passenger compartment. Debuting on the streets of Mannheim in July 1886, it had all the main components of today's internal combustion engines: a crankshaft, electric ignition and water cooling. It traveled about 10 km on a liter of gasoline (about 23 mpg), reached a top speed of 16 kph (about 10 mph) and is considered by experts as the first practical, gasoline-powered automobile to be commercially available. By using an approach where the integration of the engine, chassis and drive formed a single entity, Benz set the standard for automotive design.

In August 1888, Bertha Benz, Carl’s wife, drove their two teenage sons 120 miles from Mannheim to Pforzheim and back in a Benz Model 3, stirring up publicity with the first long-distance journey in automotive history along the way. A few days later, Carl Benz displayed the Model 3 at the Munich Engineering Exhibition, where he drove between the exhibit hall and the city several times a day, generating detailed press coverage.

In 1893, Benz solved a steering problem that had prevented him from building four-wheeled cars and debuted the Benz Victoria lat

In the nascent days of the automobile industry, when the typical horseless carriage really was an old buggy with an engine slapped on the back, the Benz Patent Motorwagen took things to the next level. First driven in 1885 by German mechanical engineer Karl Benz (1844-1929), this innovative vehicle was the first in the world designed and built stem to stern for mechanized transportation via an internal combustion engine.

Benz's auto boasted a tubular steel frame, electric coil ignition, rack and pinion steering, an evaporative cooling system, and differential rear-end gears. Its 1600-cc., ¾ horsepower engine topped out at 8 mph.

By virtue of his 1886 patent for the Motorwagen, Benz has a solid claim to the title of inventor of the first practical, commercially available, gasoline-powered automobile. His string of innovations in key automotive components burnished his legend. And despite a rocky start in business, the companies he formed set the industry standard for quality and engineering across Europe and inspired U.S. upstarts like the Duryea brothers, Ford, Studebaker, and Olds.

Benz was raised chiefly by his mother in Karlsruhe, Germany. His father, a locomotive driver, died in a train accident when Benz was two years old. The family was poor, but Benz's education was a priority and he excelled as a student. He was admitted to the University of Karlsruhe at age 15 and graduated in 1864 with his mechanical engineering degree.

Bicycles were coming of age in the late 1860s, and Benz was an avid rider and mechanic. It was while riding and tinkering that he first fantasized about a totally mechanized vehicle.

Following a succession of unsatisfying jobs with engineering and construction firms around Germany, Benz settled in Mannheim, where he partnered with August Ritter to open his first iron foundry and sheet-metal workshop. The business began to flounder early, but soon Benz would join forces with a new collaborator – his ne

Automotive and engine designer and manufacturer (1844–1929)

Carl (or Karl) Friedrich Benz (German:[kaʁlˈfʁiːdʁɪçˈbɛnts]; born Karl Friedrich Michael Vaillant; 25 November 1844 – 4 April 1929) was a German engine designer and automotive engineer. His Benz Patent-Motorwagen from 1885 is considered the first practical modern automobile and first car put into series production. He received a patent for the motorcar in 1886, the same year he first publicly drove the Benz Patent-Motorwagen.

His company Benz & Cie., based in Mannheim, was the world's first automobile plant and largest of its day. In 1926, it merged with Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft to form Daimler-Benz, which produces the Mercedes-Benz among other brands.

Benz is widely regarded as "the father of the car", as well as the "father of the automobile industry".

Early life

Carl Benz was born Karl Friedrich Michael Vaillant on 25 November 1844 in Mühlburg, now a borough of Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, which is part of modern Germany. His parents were Josephine Vaillant and a locomotive driver, Johann Georg Benz, whom she married a few months later. According to German law, the child acquired the name "Benz" by legal marriage of his parents. When he was two years old, his father died of pneumonia, and his name was changed to Karl Friedrich Benz in remembrance of his father.

Despite living in near poverty, his mother strove to give him a good education. Benz attended the local school in Karlsruhe and was a prodigious student. In 1853, at the age of nine, he started at the scientifically oriented Lyceum. Next he studied at Karlsruhe's polytechnical school under the instruction of Ferdinand Redtenbacher.

Benz had originally focused his studies on locksmithing, but he eventually followed his father's steps t