Bertha Benz by Angel VIveros

Bertha Benz

The automobile pioneer

all started with a woman. And that woman, born on May 3, 1849, was Bertha Benz, the Carl Benz´s wife, a German engineer considered the inventor of the automobile. Bertha has gone down in history for carrying out a trip of one hundred and eighty kilometers, between Mannheim and Pforzheim, in Germany, aboard the vehicle that her husband had created, the Benz Patent Motorwagen. The year was 1888 and that first trip, considered long-distance for the time, aboard a motor car, was one of the great milestones in automotive history.

                               what was bertha like?

Bertha was an atypical woman, far removed from the conventions of her time. She studied everything a woman was allowed to study in those days and learned mechanics with her father in the family workshop. With the money from her dowry, and ignoring her family's advice, she financed her husband Carl's project and became a partner in his company with unofficial effects, since at that time a woman did not have the right to run a business. After years of hard and painstaking work, in 1885 Carl finished his first vehicle: a motor carriage. Finally, in November 1886, he obtained a patent for his three-wheeled car with a rear-wheel drive engine.

 

how did everything happen?

 Despite the enthusiasm with which the Benzes started the project and the fact that they seemed to have assured success, things seemed to hit a dead end. Nobody wanted to buy that device; Curiously, back then people were not interested in an invention that years later would revolutionize society. Carl began to get demoralized and considered abandoning the commercialization of his invention. But again the figure of his partner and wife, Bertha, emerged. Determined to show the world that the Benz-Patent Motorwagen was going to mark the future of transportation, she did something that could almost be considered a crime for a woman in 1888: make a decision without her husband's permission. Bertha, along with her two children, set out on a journey driving the prototype. Before leaving, she left a note for her husband in which she said succinctly: "We are going to Pforzheim to see Grandma." Although Bertha's goal was to demonstrate to the world the usefulness of that invention, without intending to, she became the first woman to drive a car.

Problems and arrivals

But Bertha's journey was not without its difficulties. During the tour he had to make several stops both to refuel Ligroin, a petroleum derivative that could only be found in pharmacies, and to request the help of a blacksmith to repair a broken transmission chain. In addition, she herself made various repairs with the means at her disposal: she unclogged a clogged valve with a pin from her hat, covered a frayed electrical cable with a rubber band, and fixed the ignition system with a hair clip. Bertha found a solution for each of the difficulties that the trip posed, even going so far as to have to push the car for several kilometers when it ran out of fuel.

  

After twelve hours of travel, Bertha and her two children finally reached their destination, where the press soon covered the feat given the commotion caused by that machine when it crossed towns. The publicity that the Benz needed was guaranteed. Likewise, thanks to the various incidents that arose during the tour, improvements could be made to the vehicle and new devices were conceived that would eventually become essential for today's automobiles. One of those devices were the brake pads that Bertha invented by adding the soles of her shoes to the flimsy wooden brakes.

Decision, Dare and Daring

The return was not without its problems. With the experience of the outward journey, Bertha perfectly planned the return so that it would pass through pharmacies, fountains and places where the components of the car could be repaired in case they failed, as had been a blacksmith's on the way out. Upon his arrival in Mannheim, publicity for the invention skyrocketed dramatically. Most people were scared to see that carriage go by without horses to pull it, but thanks to word of mouth, the popularity of the invention and the inventor grew enormously. Bertha's goal was more than accomplished.

in conclusion

Bertha Benz became in the first person to travel by car. Today you can follow the route that he followed from Mannheim to Pforzheim, and his subsequent return.