The Benz Patent-Motorwagen and Bertha Benz's 1888 Drive
Karl Benz patented a three-wheeled motor car in 1886. Two years later his wife Bertha drove one more than 100 km, and fixed it on the way. Here is the story.
In this article
The Benz Patent-Motorwagen, a three-wheeled vehicle with a single-cylinder petrol engine, is widely described as the first practical car designed as one complete machine. Karl Benz applied for a patent on it in January 1886. In August 1888 his wife Bertha Benz drove one to her mother's town and back, proving that a motor vehicle could cover a long distance. This article sets out what the sources say, and where they disagree.
The patent
According to Wikipedia, the vehicle was covered by German patent DRP 37435, which Benz filed on 29 January 1886 and which was granted on 2 November 1886. The article says Carl Benz developed the vehicle between 1884 and 1887, and that Benz & Cie built it between 1885 and 1893. Other accounts describe the first running machine as built in 1885, with its public showing in July 1886 in Mannheim.
The idea behind the patent was a vehicle designed around its engine, rather than a horse carriage with an engine added. That is why it is often given the credit of being the first true car, although other inventors were building engine-driven vehicles at about the same time.
What the machine was like
A Qatar Museums article describes a motor tricycle with a rear-mounted single-cylinder engine of about 0.75 horsepower and a top speed of about 16 km/h. It had a steel-tube frame, wooden panels, steel-spoked wheels and solid rubber tyres. A large horizontal flywheel helped keep the engine running smoothly.
Wikipedia gives the engine as a 954 cc single-cylinder four-stroke running on ligroin, a petroleum solvent, with an output of 0.68 PS at 400 rpm. It adds that later tests at the University of Mannheim reportedly measured 0.91 PS. Top speed also varies by source: about 16 km/h in Benz's own memoir, about 20 km/h in another account, and a maximum of 10 mph in a 1900 caption. The figures are small by modern standards, so the differences between sources are not surprising.
Bertha Benz's drive
Qatar Museums gives the date of the famous trip as 5 August 1888, while other accounts say 4 August. Bertha Benz set out from Mannheim with her sons Eugen and Richard, driving Motorwagen No. 3 to Pforzheim, her birthplace and her mother's home. Accounts say she did so without telling her husband in advance.
Distances are given differently. The museum gives about 106 km one way and 180 to 194 km for the round trip, and says the outward journey took about 13 hours. Wikipedia describes the route there as about 60 miles and the return as about 50 miles, and says the car needed pushing on hills while the brakes and fuel line failed repeatedly.
Repairs along the road
The journey is remembered for the problems she solved on the way. According to the museum's account, she cleared a blocked fuel pipe with a hat pin and insulated a frayed ignition wire with a garter. A local cobbler nailed leather strips onto worn brake blocks, which is described as an early form of brake lining. A village blacksmith helped with the drive chain.
- Fuel pipe blocked: cleared with a hat pin.
- Ignition wire worn: insulated with a garter.
- Brake blocks worn: leather added by a cobbler.
- Drive chain trouble: helped by a blacksmith.
The drive required buying more fuel on the way. The museum says she bought ligroin at the Stadtapotheke pharmacy in Wiesloch, a shop often described as the world's first filling station.
How many were made?
Counts differ. Wikipedia says the article it draws on gives no overall total, quotes an estimate that six Patent-Motorwagen had been made by 1888 including prototypes, and says series production is generally dated to 1888. Another account found in a search of the topic mentions 25 vehicles produced between 1886 and 1893 or 1894, but this figure was not confirmed on a page we opened, so it should be treated as unverified.
Wikipedia also says about 150 replicas of the 1895 rebuild have been made by various suppliers, and that Daimler began making hand-built replicas in 2001. It notes they can run on petrol but are not permitted on public roads.
Why it matters
The Patent-Motorwagen is a reminder that early motoring depended on the people willing to try it. The patent set out the design on paper, and the 1888 drive tested it on real roads. The trip showed what needed fixing. The Benz name continued through Benz & Cie, and the story of the car's first years is still told with both Karl and Bertha in it.
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