What is the Love Story behind Benz Patent Motor Car?

German Nikolaus August Otto successfully built a four-stroke internal combustion engine following the theoretical underpinnings established by the research of French Carnot, Alphonse Beau de Rochas, and others. Additionally, Karl Benz, often known as Carl Benz, dedicated his life to the study and advancement of internal combustion engines and was captivated by thermodynamics.

Karl Benz was strolling down the street one day, reading a book. The book's explanation of the notion captivated him. Then, a distinct female voice yelled, "Look at the car!" When a cyclist collided with him, it was too late, and the two of them tumbled to the ground together.

The rider was a young girl, tall and with exquisite features. "Sir, why don't you look at the road when you walk?" she yelled angrily as she hurried to her feet and began to dust off her clothes.

Karl apologized and quickly assisted her in getting on the bicycle, saying, "I'm so sorry, Miss, I was fascinated by reading."

"Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire, isn't this the work of Mr. Carnot?" the girl asked, rolling her eyes at Karl as she picked up the book he had thrown on the floor.

Karl appeared taken aback: "Huh? Are you acquainted with Nicholas Léonard Sadi Carnot?

"Of course, Mr. Carnot was the first to suggest the connection between heat and power," answered the young lady.

To his further amazement, Karl Benz remarked, "I haven't met a girl who is interested in natural science."

With a disdainful smirk, the girl said, "I'm not some stupid woman! "Who are you? My name is Beretta."

"Um, nice to meet you, I'm Karl Benz."

"What a lucky meeting, I'm unlucky." Beretta finished talking and laughed.

Since then, Beretta has started to visit Karl Benz's workshop on a regular basis. The boom of machinery, oil spills, and smoke in the workplace are all ignored by this special girl. In actuality, Beretta is a noble daughter born into the renowned German Ringer family, despite her upbeat disposition and desire for independence. Due to Beretta's perseverance and her parents' enlightenment, she not only went to school to study but also gained extensive expertise in natural science, even though women's education was not supported at the time. In addition to being interested in a wide range of strange and novel things, Beretta enjoys travelling and riding her bike. She doesn't mind the odd looks from the outside world and thinks that everything is possible as long as she follows her principles and acts upon them.

When Beretta Ringer encountered Karl Benz, a mechanical industrial designer who shared his interests, the two young, unrestrained individuals clicked and eventually met. From daylight till night, the two remained in Karl Benz's workshop, developing and building various fanciful mechanical creations while debating the world's limitless new scientific discoveries.

"You like weird things," Karl remarked to Beretta as he set down the tools he was holding.

As she carefully wiped the oil from Karl's cheek, Beretta said, "You are also a weird person."

Karl's heart raced, and his throat constricted.

"That's why I like you." After saying this and giving Karl a quick peck on the mouth, Beretta flushed, hopped on the bike, and fled.

In a second, Karl Benz thought the choking pyrotechnics seemed to transform into the scent of flowers, and the workplace filled with iron and steel machinery seemed to gleam with a magnificent spring.

I wonder who invented love, but it doesn't matter who invented the internal combustion engine. Benz, Karl, fell in love.

Although Beretta is a woman from a famous family and Karl is a young engineer from a low-income family, they do not live together. Nevertheless, Beretta is influenced by Karl's values and develops feelings for this like-minded, impoverished man. Beretta eventually persuaded his family and wed Karl Benz.

"I want to see the whole world, but I can only go to the forest in the suburbs at most by bicycle."

"I'm going to build you a car that can take you to the end of the world."

Thilde, Clara, Eugen, and Richard, Bertha Benz's children (from left) in 1883 (source: https://group.mercedes-benz.com/ official website)

Karl Benz is a real-life example. You need an engine before you can build an automobile that doesn't require horses. He focused on studying and developing internal combustion engines because, of all, this couldn't be an old-fashioned steam engine. The production license for Otto four-stroke gas engines was granted to Karl Benz. He modified the engine's frequent explosion hazards and engine construction after a year of design and trial production. He created the first single-cylinder gas engine in 1879.

Nevertheless, financiers did not support this groundbreaking invention, and further development proved unsustainable. Beretta sold her dowry and jewellery at a crucial time and provided her husband with the most vital assistance. Later, Karl Benz recalled: "My wife was the only person who stood by my side no matter what throughout those difficult days. She showed bravery by raising the sail of my life once more.

Karl Benz, who had changed his ways, started researching how to mount the tricycle's engine. However, putting a gas engine in a car is just not feasible due to the large gas tanks that need to be installed. Karl Benz wants to shatter his head over this. Until he happened along with someone who tried to use gasoline to wash off the dirt from their clothes one day. A deflagration resulted from the unintentional ignition of a flame after the gasoline evaporated. Karl Benz was immensely motivated by the unexpected catastrophe: It turns out that the power of gas and oil is so enormous that substituting gasoline for gas may reduce the volume and perfectly solve the problem.

"Benz Patent-Motorwagen Nr. 1" was the world's first three-wheeled car with a single-cylinder engine. Karl Benz worked day and night for several years to refine the design plan, improve the Otto four-stroke engine, and eventually successfully trial-produce a single-cylinder gasoline engine. He received funding from the Royal Photographer Emil Beeler and others. Karl Benz successfully produced a three-wheeled automobile on September 5, 1885, and on January 29, 1886, he applied for an automotive innovation patent at the German Imperial Patent Office. Benz is regarded as the "father of modern cars," and this day has come to symbolize the car's birthday. This is because Benz was the first to commercialize cars using gasoline engines successfully, and the conventional definition of a car does not include any steam-powered vehicle.

The Mercedes-Benz 1 was put through its first public test on the streets of Mannheim on July 3, 1886. For the first time on the road, the vehicle covered 1 km at 15 km/h. The German Invention Office formally granted Karl Benz's automobile invention on November 2. The patent is named "gas engine vehicle" and is under the category of air and gas power machinery. Its certificate number is 37435. Two persons can ride in Karl Benz's three-wheeled vehicle. It has tyres made of solid rubber. Two huge wheels at the back and a small wheel at the front are guided. The rear wheels' structure supports the engine. The driver is seated in the centre and is managed by lever-operated steering, and the so-called rack and pinion steering was initially employed. The rear axle was driven by gears and chains and had a differential that was quite sophisticated for the time. The engine is a Benz four-stroke, single-cylinder gasoline engine that has a displacement of 0.93 litres and produces roughly 0.8 horsepower. A radiator is attached, and the coil and battery are lit. The vehicle can reach a top speed of 16 km/h and weighs 254 kg. The vehicle does not, however, have reverse gear. The Mercedes-Benz Automobile Museum in Stuttgart currently houses the vehicle.

Microcosm recently produced a scale model of the R18 single-cylinder four-stroke engine from a 20th-century Benz Patent-Motorwagen from 1886.Purchase now.

But rather than quickly bringing Karl Benz fame and praise, his first Benz automobile was met with mockery. Benz's car was referred to as a "smelly monster" and constantly broke down due to the undeveloped technology. Karl Benz was severely injured and was afraid of becoming the world's first driver. The world's first automobile sat in the warehouse to gather dust because of laughing butt.

"The process of invention is a thousand times better than the result of invention." Karl let out a sad sigh.

"Karl, you have done something that no one in the world has done. Don't care about the eyes of those passers-by." Beretta reassured Karl.

It's possible that only Beretta thought Karl Benz's idea was real. She decided to act in favour of her beloved and took the Karl-built car on an unusual long-distance drive. Karl was still asleep one early August 1888 morning when Beretta gently arose and left him a letter that read, "The vacation has begun." Let's visit our grandmother. Next, awaken the two kids. The mother and son pushed Karl's most recent project, "Mercedes-Benz 3," far enough away from the lab before turning it on so as not to wake Karl. In order to visit the children's grandma, Beretta's mother and son travelled over 100 kilometres from Mannheim to Pforzheim. No automobile had ever driven that far in history at that time.

The east was slowly turning white as the mother and son marched forward toward the rising sun. Upon hearing odd mechanical roars from a distance, people on both sides of the road who had risen early stared in disbelief out of the windows as this "monster" ran. After witnessing this peculiar occurrence, the village women who worked in the fields even bowed down to offer prayers to God. However, the happy days were short-lived. The car ran out of fuel while travelling through Wiesloch, a tiny village. The intelligent Beretta was unconcerned about the lack of gas stations at the time. She knocked on the door of the town's pharmacy, knowing that they sold light fuel, but it was too early, and nobody responded.

A sequence from the movie "Karl and Bertha" in which Bertha embarks on her first road trip with her boys

Suddenly, a young girl ran up to Beretta, who was glancing about nervously.

Curious, the girl said, "Excuse me, are you a witch?"

"Of course not, girl."

"But you can do magic."

Beretta grinned. "This is the magic car that my prince made for me," she murmured, lowering her head to address the young girl. In order to activate its magical abilities, I need gasoline. Are you aware of the pharmacist's location?

The young child made the observation, "He's in the beer hall."

Beretta thanked the little girl, went to the beer bar where she pointed, and located the pharmacist.

"I want 10 litres of light gasoline."

Looking up and down at the dusty Beretta, the pharmacist said, "Don't blame me for being verbose, Ma'am. Light gasoline won't remove the oil spots from your skirt. You should get a new one.

"I don't buy gas for this; it's for my car."

"God, you want to poison your horse?"

"Do you have 10 litres of light gasoline?" Beretta said with a furious laugh.

Beretta refuelled the vehicle after purchasing light gasoline. However, the difficulties continued since a steep incline obstructed the road after another 70 kilometres of driving. Ultimately, the Mercedes-Benz 3's low power forced Beretta to let her younger son take the wheel. She and her oldest son then pushed behind, eventually pushing the vehicle up the steep incline. While bailing Roth, she had her brake pads replaced and the chain fixed by a Bruchsal blacksmith. After the engine's oil circuit became blocked, Beretta thought of using the hat's hair clip to remove it. Then, the ignition wire shorted out, so Beretta used the garter belt as an insulating pad to fix the issue. Beretta's extensive scientific understanding and inventiveness helped him avoid danger along the way.

After an arduous trek of 106 kilometres, the mother and son eventually reached Pforzheim around sunset. The child's grandmother's astonishment rocked the little community. This is a groundbreaking, significant piece of work. No automobile in the world at the time covered such a vast distance. Every prior vehicle journey was a short-distance test. As a result, Beretta Benz was acknowledged as the world's first automobile driver. This is a girl driver, indeed!

"The car has passed the test; please apply to participate in the Munich Expo!" Beretta telegrammed Karl in excitement. When Karl Benz got the telegraph, he was so shocked that he hurried through the display procedures. Karl Benz's career took off after his car finally shone at the Munich Industrial Fair. Automobiles have formally arrived and started to emerge as the most significant mode of transportation in human history. Mercedes-Benz continues to hold a dominant position in the automobile sector.

"Karl, you said you would build me a car that could go to the end of the world, and you delivered on your promise."

"Beretta, it's your courage that created a miracle that belongs to the two of us!"

The golden era of automobiles has finally arrived after a lengthy journey of love. Later, Karl Benz recalled: "My wife was the only person who stood by my side no matter what throughout those difficult days. She showed bravery by raising the sail of my life once more.

PS: Since this is a historical narrative, the main plot follows facts, while part of the dialogue is made up.