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Mercedes-Benz will be celebrating the 125th anniversary of the January 29, 1886, filing of Karl Benz’s patent on his three-wheel “gas engine-powered vehicle,” which has been historically considered as the very first practical automobile. The two companies that would combine in 1926 to become Mercedes-Benz – Benz & Cie. and Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft – would go on to build a few decent cars in the years that followed…
Hemmings Blog - Mercedes-Benz is ready to party
Aug. 12, 1888: Road Trip! Berta Takes the Benz
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In today's episode of Car Lust, we'll follow a young mother and two of her children as they drive over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house in the family car.
Sounds exciting, eh?
At this point, you may be wondering what's gotten in to me. After all, taking the kids for a drive to visit relatives is a pretty mundane activity. You've done it yourself, probably more times than you can count.
This particular trip to this particular grandmother's house, however, was a momentous event in automotive history. When Frau Bertha Ringer Benz of Mannheim, Germany loaded her two teenage boys on the family automobile that day in August of 1888 and set off for her mother's house in Pforzheim, it was in fact the first time anyone, anywhere on the planet, had used an automobile for personal travel. That would make the trip one for the history books all by itself, but there's even more to the story. Frau Benz would accomplish quite a few more automotive "firsts" in the course of her 65 mile adventure.
Bertha received word that her sister Tekla had given birth to a baby girl, back in Bertha's old hometown of Pforzheim in the Black Forest. At some point, she would be going to her mother's place to visit and see the new baby. Usually, she'd go by train, but now she had another way of getting there. Why not go by Motorwagen? Karl would certainly object if she asked him ahead of time, but if she didn't ask ahead of time, he couldn't say no, could he?
On a morning in August of 1888 (we're not sure of the exact date), Bertha got up before sunrise with her two oldest children, Eugen, age 15, and Richard, age 13. Bertha wrote a short note to her husband, advising him that she and the boys were going to Grandmother Ringer's house in Pforzheim for a few days. The three of them went to the shed, pulled Patent-Motorwagen Nr. 3 out, and pushed it down the street, far enough from the house that the engine noise wouldn't wake Karl. The boys climbed on, Bertha started the engine, and they were off on humanity's first road trip.
Much more at the link:
Car Lust
[This message has been edited by p_bubel (edited 1/28/2011 9:02p).]