06/12/2026
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The First Car
Throwback Thursday Snapshot
Historical Snapshots
Jun 12
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Black-and-white photograph of the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, with three large spoked wheels, an exposed engine, and a padded bench seat, parked on a dirt road.
The Benz Patent-Motorwagen
The world was changing rapidly in the late nineteenth century. Railways crisscrossed continents, and factories hummed with the sounds of industrialization. Yet transportation in cities and towns remained stubbornly tethered to horse-drawn carriages — to the slow, familiar rhythm of hooves on cobblestone or dirt roads that had defined so much of human movement for centuries. In 1884, over 15.4 million draft horses were at work across America alone.
This was the case until an inventive German engineer named Karl Benz introduced the world to a revolutionary idea: a self-propelled vehicle. In 1886, Karl unveiled the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, widely regarded as the first automobile.
The three-wheeled machine, powered by an internal combustion engine, looked nothing like the sleek cars we see today. Its spindly frame, wooden wheels, and single-cylinder gasoline engine producing less than one horsepower resembled a high-tech tricycle more than a modern vehicle. But it was groundbreaking, a masterpiece of engineering.
The heart of the Motorwagen was its internal combustion engine, an innovation refined by other inventors for use in industrial equipment, agricultural tools, and other areas. Karl took the concept and paired it with a lightweight chassis, pioneering the integration of engine and vehicle into a cohesive system. And with that, the car was born.
But inventing the first car was one thing; convincing the world to adopt it was another. Skepticism abounded. Critics dismissed the car as impractical, noisy, and even dangerous. Many doubted it could replace the reliability of horse-drawn carriages. Then came a pivotal moment, a breakthrough. But it didn’t come from Karl. Rather, it came about from a decision made by his wife, Bertha.
On the morning of August 5, 1888, Bertha slipped out at the crack of dawn with the couple’s two teenage sons. So the engine wouldn’t wake her husband, they pushed the Motorwagen down the road before starting it. She left only a note on the table that she was taking the boys to visit her mother in a town roughly 66 miles away. No automobile had ever traveled that far.
Thus, the roads there were not built for cars. There were no filling stations. No mechanics. She refueled at pharmacies, where gasoline was sold as a cleaning solvent. When the fuel line clogged, she cleared it with her hatpin. When the wooden brakes failed, she found a cobbler to line them with leather — the first brake lining in history. On a steep climb, the underpowered engine couldn’t make the grade, and the boys got out to push. She solved each problem as it came across the journey.
By evening, they arrived. She sent Karl a telegram.
Bertha’s journey captured the public’s imagination, proving that the automobile was more than an eccentric invention. It was a viable means of travel.
The Benz Patent-Motorwagen marked the beginning of an industry that would transform the world. Over the next few decades, inventors and entrepreneurs worldwide built upon Karl’s foundation, making cars more affordable and accessible to the masses. Roads expanded, cities sprawled, and societies reorganized themselves around the freedom of mobility. By the mid-1890s, public perception began to shift, and demand for cars quickly outpaced supply.
One magazine captured this change: “Those who have taken the pains to search below the surface for the great tendencies of the age, know what a giant industry is struggling into being there. All signs point to the motor vehicle as the necessary sequence of methods of locomotion already established and approved. The growing needs of our civilization demand it; the public believe in it, and await with lively interest its practical application to the daily business of the world.”
Today, it is estimated that 1.475 billion cars exist in the world
