Karl Benz did not realize the damage his motor car invention would cause. Any more than John Tyndall might have imagined the consequences. As he plotted steam railway lines across England some 50 years earlier. Without knowing about water vapor in the atmosphere. Karl Benz was an engineer who lifted himself out of poverty by his shoelaces. He simply wanted to explore his passion for a horseless carriage, that became a motorwagen or motorized wagon.
How Karl Benz’s Motorwagen Came to Market
By 1873, Karl Benz had developed a two-stroke piston engine running on gasoline, with pushrods and poppet valves. He then applied his attention to developing a suitable carriage for it, while pot boiling a job designing stationery engines.
His dream-come-true turned out to be a three-wheel carriage with innovative steel tubing and wood panels. The steel spoke wheels shod with solid rubber tires were his personal invention. The prototype Model 1 motorwagen boasted rack steering, elliptic springs at the rear on a live axle, and a belt system connecting the engine to chain drive on both sides.
Karl Benz unveiled Model 2 of his ‘motorized wagon’ in 1886, after obtaining a patent earlier that year for a ‘vehicle with gas engine operation’. In 1888, his indomitable wife Bertha Benz took their two sons for a 120-mile demonstration drive in the Model 3 upgrade.
During the trip she cleaned the carburetor with her hatpin, insulated a wire with her garter, topped up the fuel tank with benzene petroleum from a chemist, and asked a local shoemaker to nail leather to the wood brake blocks. Thereby inventing brake linings in the process. She must have been ‘quite a girl’ we would have all loved to meet.
How 1886 Was a Watershed for Climate change
Despite Karl’s inventiveness and Bertha’s ingenuity, 1886 was a disaster for climate change. While Karl sold only sold some 25 motorwagen between 1886 and 1893, his ideas spawned a transport revolution. According to NASA, this was single handedly the largest contributor to climate change.
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Preview Image: Model 1 Motorwagen
