A one-cylinder two-stroke unit that ran for the first time on New Year's Eve 1879, was the first stationary gasoline engine built by Carl Benz. With this engine, Benz had so much commercial success that he was able to devote more time to his dream of making a lightweight car powered by a gasoline engine in which a single unit was created by the chassis and engine.
The lightweight high-speed single-cylinder four-stroke motor mounted horizontally at the rear, the tubular steel frame, the differential and three wire-spoked wheels were the main features of the two-seater car, which was completed in 1885. The output of the engine was 0.75 hP (0.55 kW). An automatic intake slide, a controlled exhaust valve, high-voltage electric vibrator ignition with spark plug and cooling for water/thermo siphon evaporation were included in the details.
The first automobile
Carl Benz applied for a patent on January 29, 1886 for his "vehicle powered by a gas engine." The patent number 37435 can be known as the automobile's birth certificate. The first public outing of the three-wheeled Benz Patent Motor Car, model no. 1, was published by the newspapers in July 1886.
Long-distance journey by Bertha Benz (1888)
Benz's wife Bertha and their two sons, Eugen (15) and Richard (14), embarked on the first long-distance journey in automotive history on an August day in 1888, using an updated version and without the knowledge of her husband. The path contained a few detours and took them to Pforzheim, her place of birth, from Mannheim. Bertha Benz revealed the practicality of the motor vehicle to the whole world with this journey of 180 kilometers, including the return trip. The subsequent creation of Benz & Cie without her daring and that of her sons and the decisive triggers that emerged from it. In Mannheim, it would have been impossible to become the world's largest car plant of its day.
Double-pivot steering, contra engine, planetary gear transmission (1891 – 1897)
It was Carl Benz who invented the double-pivot steering mechanism in 1893, thereby addressing one of the automobile's most urgent issues. In 1893, the three-hp (2.2-kW) Victoria was the first Benz with this steering system, of which slightly larger numbers were constructed with different bodies. The Benz Velo of 1894, a lightweight, robust and inexpensive compact car, was the world's first production car with some 1200 units completed.
In 1897, the "twin engine" consisting of two horizontal single-cylinder units was built at the same time, but this proved unsatisfactory. A better version, the "contra engine" in which the cylinders were arranged opposite each other, immediately followed this. This was the birth of the engine of the horizontally-opposed piston. This unit was always mounted at the rear by Benz until 1900 and built up to 16 hp (12 kW) in different models.