automobile history

Benz Story:

Benz was quite successful as a manufacturer, selling a large number of engines and winning the confidence of investors.

With the financial backing of others, he founded the Mannheim Gas Engine Manufacturing Company, which he intended to use in part to develop his horseless carriage. Even though the venture quickly made a profit, Benz’s investors did not want him to spend valuable resources on inventions.

Benz unsuccessfully fought their decision and, after being in business for only three months, left the company. He quickly lined up new shareholders and founded a third business, Benz and Company, in October of 1883.

The company was to sell stationary gas engines, but the new investors were also willing to support Benz’s horseless carriage as long as it did not detract from the production of the primary product.

After two decades of planning his horseless carriage, Benz finally had the resources to make it a reality. In 1885, he debuted his automobile, a motorized tricycle that was revolutionary primarily for its use of a gasoline-powered internal combustion engine.

Earlier in the century, self-propelled vehicles had been developed with steam engines, but the internal combustion engine marked an important breakthrough for automobiles. It provided a lighter, more compact, and more efficient means of powering a vehicle. It was the adoption of the internal combustion engine