The first commercial automobile - Karl Benz’s Horseless Tri-Car

Karl Friedrich Benz (November 25, 1844– April 4, 1929) was a German engine designer and automobile engineer, generally regarded as the inventor of the gasoline-powered automobile founder of the automobile manufacturer, Mercedes-Benz. When he was two years old, his father was killed in a railway accident. Despite living near poverty, his mother strove to give him a good education. While riding his bicycle, he started to envision concepts for a vehicle that would eventually become the horseless carriage.

In 1871, at the age of twenty-seven, Karl Benz joined August Ritter in launching a mechanical workshop. The enterprise's first year was a complete disaster. Ritter turned out to be unreliable and local authorities confiscated the business. The difficulty was solved when Benz's fiancée, Bertha Ringer, bought out Ritter's share in the company using her dowry. In July 20, 1872 Karl Benz and Bertha Ringer married, later having five children.Karl Benz led in the development of new engines. Benz finished his two-stroke engine on December 31, 1878, New Year's Eve, and was granted a patent for it in 1879. Benz soon patented the speed regulation system, the ignition using sparks with battery, the spark plug, the carburetor, the clutch, the gear shift, and the water radiator.

In 1883, the three founded a new company producing industrial machines. Quickly growing to twenty-five employees, it soon began to produce gas engines as well. The success of the company gave Benz the opportunity to indulge in his old passion of designing a horseless carriage. Based on his experience with, and fondness for, bicycles, he used similar technology when he created an automobile. It featured wire wheels (unlike carriages' wooden ones) with a four-stroke engine of his own design between the rear wheels, with a very advanced coil ignition and evaporative cooling rather than a radiator. Power was transmitted by means of two roller chains to the rear axle. The automobile had three wheels, being steered by the front wheel and with the passengers and the engine being supported by the two wheels in the rear—some now refer to it as the Tri-Car. Karl Benz finished his creation in 1885 and named it the Benz Patent Motorwagen.

The beginnings of the Motorwagen in 1885 were less than spectacular. The tests often attracted many onlookers who laughed mockingly when it smashed against a wall because it initially was so difficult to control. The Motorwagen was patented on January: "automobile fueled by gas". The first successful tests were carried out in the early summer of 1886 on public roads. Benz began to sell the vehicle—advertising it as the Benz Patent Motorwagen—making it the first commercially available automobile in history.