Mercedes Benz
In January 1886, Karl Benz, a 41 year old German engineer, patented the world’s first automobile powered by an internal combustion engine.
Karl Benz was born in Pfaffenrot, Germanys, in 1844. After graduated, he got job at a nearby locomotive factory which eventually promoted him to draftsman.
There he learned to design engines and bridges.
Benz left his job to start his own machine shop in Mannheim, Germany. At first, Benz struggled, for he was an engineer, not a business man. He then forms another company in October 1883 and called it Benz & Company.
A year before patented his new engine his fellow German, Gottlieb Daimler, had built the first land vehicle ever to use an internal combustion engine – a motorcycle.
In 1886, Daimler topped Benz’s achievement by building the first four wheeled automobile (Benz’s vehicle had been a three wheeler).
Although the two men were only about 70 miles apart, they never met to work together on their inventions.
In 1899, Emil Jellinek, a wealthy Austrian businessman and diplomat saw a Daimler Phoenix win a race in Nice, France.
The car so impressed him that he approached Daimler with a business proposition. Jellinek would purchase 36 cars if Daimler built a new, more powerful model. Jellinek suggested that the new model be called Mercedes, named after Jellinek’s daughter. Daimler agreed to the business deal.
Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (DMG) – Daimler’s company – introduced the first Mercedes in 1901.
Forty years later, the companies both men set up – Daimler’s Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft and Benz’s Benz & Co – would merge.
The resultant brand of cars, Mercedes Benz has become the most well known prestige brand in the world.
In 2002 the new Mercedes Benz E-Class became the market leader partly due to to innovations such as an elector –hydraulic braking system, patented ‘sensotronic’ brake control and an ‘Electronic Stability Program’ that ensured better handling in emergency situations.
Mercedes Benz
