On July 3, 1886, Karl Benz first demonstrated his invention in public by driving along a street in Mannheim. Prior to this, he built a car back in 1885 and performed tests only at night in the courtyard of his factory, as he was afraid of infringement of Otto’s patent for a four-stroke ICE. But as soon as the patent expired, it was possible to show his creation without fear. The three-wheeled car had a water-cooled engine with a volume of about 1 liter and it moved the car with great difficulty. The force on the rear wheels was transmitted using belts. On the first trip, Benz was helped by a son who added fuel to the carburetor, since the car did not have a tank. The car has a speed of 15 km/h. This event was featured in a local newspaper in a note: “A bicycle driven by a ligroin constructed at the Rhein gas engine plant of Benz and Co., which we already reported in the newspaper on June 4, passed the test on Ringstrasse this morning. The tests were successful».
Cover: Mercedes-Benz Public Archive
