Work of Benz and Daimler

Many authorities consider Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler of Germany as the most important pioneer contributors to the automobile. Benz was dedicated to the proposition that the internal-combustion engine would supersede the horse and revolutionize the world's transportation.

Benz ran his first car, a three-wheeler powered by a two-cycle, one-cylinder engine, early in 1885, and his first sale was made to a Parisian named Émile Rogers in 1887. Gradually, the soundness of his design and the quality and care that went into the material and the construction of his cars bore weight, and they sold well. By 1888 he was employing 50 workmen to build the tricycle car; in 1890 he began to make a four-wheeler.

In 1872 Daimler became technical director of Otto's firm, then building stationary gasoline engines. During the next decade, important work was done on the four-stroke engine.Daimler brought in several brilliant researchers, among them Wilhelm Maybach, but in 1882 both Daimler and Maybach resigned because of Daimler's conviction that Otto did not understand the potential of the internal-combustion engine. They set up a shop in Bad Cannstatt and built an air-cooled, one-cylinder engine—the first high-speed internal-combustion engine that was designed to run at 900 revolutions per minute (rpm). (Benz'sfirst tricycle engine had operated at only 250 rpm.) Daimler and Maybach built a second engine and mounted it on a wooden bicycle, which first ran on Nov. 10, 1885. The next year the first Daimler four-wheeled road vehicle was made: a carriage modified to be driven by a one-cylinder engine.

Daimler's 1889 car was a departure from previous practice. It was based on a framework of light tubing, it had the engine in the rear, its wheels were driven by belt, and it was steered by tiller. Remarkably, it had four speeds. This car had obvious commercial value, and in the following year theDaimler Motoren-Gesellschaft was founded. The British Daimler automobile was started as a manufactory licensed by the German company but later became quite independent of it. (To distinguish machines made by the two firms in the early years, the German cars are usually referred to as Cannstatt-Daimlers.) Products of the Daimler-Benz company (the two firms were merged in 1926)are sold under the name Mercedes-Benz. Oddly, Benz and Daimler never met.

In France the giants were De Dion-Bouton, Peugeot, and Renault (the last two are still in existence). The Italians were later in the field: the Steffanini-Martina of 1896 is thought of as the foundation of the industry in Italy, and Isotta-Fraschini was founded about 1898. Giovanni Agnelli founded Fiat (Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino) in 1899, saw it grow into one of the weightiest industrial complexes in the world, and maintained personal control until his deathin 1945. Fabricators of lesser puissance but great repute were Lancia, Alfa Romeo, Maserati, and Ferrari, for years thestandard against which other Grand Prix and Gran Turismo motorcars were judged.