Miguel Sánchez
PHOTOS BERTHA BENZ / SHORT FILM: MERCEDES
In the mid-nineteenth century, industrialization was making its way into Spain by rail. But nevertheless, not everyone was equally excited about the irruption of technological progress. Up in the mountains, the Carlist hosts were stationed asleep in their feudal illusion. Pío Baroja defined his average militant as a "Animal with a red crest that from time to time comes down to the city and attacks man". According to what they did more than once with the nascent railway, he was not wrong.
During the Carlist Wars many trains aimed at the steel industry were harassed in the Basque valleys. So far everything is normal, since no one is aware that in a war conflict the first thing is to sabotage terrestrial communications. However, the nuance comes in the following: These attacks were not the result of military strategy but of religious fanaticism. Spurred on by absolutist priests, the Carlist guerrillas destroyed the locomotives because they were the work of the Devil. In addition, sometimes they killed the railwaymen for lending themselves to such "coven".
In his mind, technological progress was closely associated with liberalism. And this one, to atheism and the new freedoms. Destroying a train was not just destroying an enemy asset, but a symbolic attack on the modern world that, despite the fury of these red berets, inexorably broke through. Beyond the trains in the north of Spain, something similar happened to Bertha Benz with her first car trip through Germany in 1888.
Throughout the 106 kilometers traveled, many peasants presigned themselves to the passing of this demonic ingenuity. In addition, the fact that it was carried by a woman ignited in many the belief that Bertha Benz was some kind of witch. Fortunately time has passed, continuing the unstoppable technical advance that has rocked Humanity since the time of the caves. Nevertheless, It is always advisable to remember the obstacles that have been placed on progress. For this Mercedes-Benz presents the following video.
BERTHA BENZ, THE WOMAN WHO MADE THE CAR POSSIBLE
It is always difficult to put a specific name when determining who invented this or that. However, in the case of the automobile it is easy. It was Carl Benz who applied in 1886 for a patent to the German government to register his Motorwagen, first vehicle in history designed to be powered by a fossil combustion engine. Still, there was a surprising paradox. Although today registering this idea may seem like a financial bicoca, the truth is that just two years after the patent Carl Benz was rejecting the idea of producing it.
Beyond the technological curiosity that the car represented, almost no one showed interest in it as long as it could have a horse. And this was a problem, especially for Bertha Benz, which had seen how her husband diminished the fortune of the marriage developing the invention. Could it be that all those efforts were going to be a mere patent?
Fortunately, Bertha Benz did not resign herself to it. After all, she was not one of those vase women so common in the old aristocracy. In fact, to his restless nature we owe the invention of brake pads. As it was, one summer morning in 1888 he took two of his sons and got into the Benz-Motorwagen for the first long-haul trip by car.
THE IMPORTANCE OF TRIAL TRIPS
What today became the most normal thing in the world in 1888 was quite an adventure. In the first place, because Bertha Benz did not notify anyone of the trip. Neither her husband nor the authorities were advised of the idea, which takes on a special nuance in the case of the latter, since there had never been the case of a car sharing roads with the caballerias. In addition, it was not known how the Motorwagen would respond, since the tests carried out to date had been a few kilometers and always with mechanical assistance.
Bertha Benz's adventure traveling 106 kilometers from Mannheim to her mother's house in Pforzheim was the first real test ever done on a car. And without gas stations in between! In fact, just the moment captured by the video that we have seen is when he had to stop in Wiesloch to look for the local pharmacist. And not because I needed something to lower the nerves of the moment, but because of those ligroin was only found in drugstores. With this petroleum solvent the engine could work. A supply problem that, compared to others that arose, seems like nothing.
And it is that Bertha Benz had to repair the transmission chain with the help of a blacksmith, clean a fuel line with her hair needle and even push the vehicle with her children on a hill. Nevertheless, after more than 10 hours he managed to complete the journey. And not only that, since with it it demonstrated the real possibilities of the car encouraging to commercialize it. What came next is a story we know.
