The first woman to drive a car Bashny.Net

On January 29, 1886, Karl Benz received a patent for his three-wheeled Motorwagen with a gasoline engine and marked the beginning of world automotive history. Critics initially reacted to the invention coolly and even considered it unpromising.





The crew of Benz could disappear into oblivion, leaving the designer unknown, but God gave Karl the most important thing - a talented and purposeful wife. When Karl, who was called crazy, was ready to abandon his development, it was Bertha who persuaded him to continue the project of a self-propelled crew.

On August 8, 1888, Frau Benz changed the world by making the first-ever long-duration road trip from one point to another. At the moment of Karl Benz’s insecurities, she decided that her husband’s car was good enough and it was time to prove it to everyone.





Early waking up and taking with her older sons - Eugen and Richard, Berta went to her mother in the city of Pforzheim, which was located 106 kilometers from the house of Benz in Mannheim. Mrs. Benz did not say anything to her husband and, in order not to wake him inadvertently, she manually pushed the car away from the gates of the house. Desperate woman!





No one has ever made such long journeys on self-driving crews. The carriage, called Benz Patent Motorwagen No. 3, until then moved only around the workshop and in the nearest streets. Bertha was not afraid of many difficulties, and she managed to overcome them successfully.





It must be said that women of that time could not have afforded a small fraction of what Frau Benz “stunned”. In the words of some contemporaries, she rarely behaved like a real lady, but now it is said that she was an example of a woman who had the right to make her own decisions and actions.





In the town of Visloch, the car ran out of fuel. Berta solved the problem by buying ligroin, a gasoline-containing solvent, at a local pharmacy. Now on the square in front of the pharmacy there is a monument reminding tourists about this event.





In Bretten, travelers faced a serious problem: the car could not overcome a steep hill. I had to push the car up by hand. In the same way, travelers stormed all subsequent heights.





It may be a legend, but they say first-woman showed enviable ingenuity and technical literacy on the way. She cleaned the clogged fuel tube with a pin, a rubber stocking garter isolated the curled ignition wire.

A new leather lining on the brake pad, Frau Benz ordered from a shoemaker, and the stretched drive chain was repaired from a village blacksmith. A number of sources claim that the entire road took them just under 12 hours, which means that the average speed of the crew was about 9 kilometers per hour.





That day, the self-propelled stroller made a splash in all the surrounding towns and villages - about the invention of Benz began to talk, and soon he began to receive orders for the manufacture of new cars. Over the next four years, Carl managed to sell 69 of his cars and create the first four-wheeled model.

Ahead of Karl Benz had numerous ups and downs, successes and failures. But his luck, perhaps, caught his tail at that time, August 5, 1888.





In fact, Bertha did it for him. She made the first ever trip by car from one point to another, made the first stop at the car service (the blacksmith’s stop), and the pharmacy where ligroin was bought is still considered the world’s first car refueling station.

Bertha outlived her husband by 15 years, passing away on May 5, 1944, two days after her 95th birthday. She spent her last years in Ladenburg, where she and Carl moved in 1906.

Now. Berta Benz - A completely legendary person. The road from Mannheim to Pforzheim has become an official tourist route, information signs are installed at the places of the women's stops. In 2011, the film Karl and Bertha was filmed in Germany, detailing Bertha’s journey and other events in their lives.

If you are interested in the full vicissitudes of the fate of famous women, pay attention to the article about Maria Gartung, the eldest and beloved daughter of Alexander Pushkin.

Editorial "Site" invites you to familiarize yourself with the material about the difficult life path of Maria Rostislavovna Kapnist. Few people know that the appearance of this talented actress is a visual result of 15 years of hard labor.