Carl Benz filed a patent for a vehicle with a gas engine on 29 January 1886. It was granted on 2 November 1886. On 3 July 1886 he made the first public test drive in Mannheim. In 2011 UNESCO added the patent to its Memory of the World register. Benz’s three-wheeler is described as the world’s first practical motor car with a combustion engine. Steam vehicles had been in use long before. In August 1888 his wife Bertha drove it from Mannheim to Pforzheim with their two teenage sons, without her husband’s knowledge. A pharmacy in Wiesloch, where she bought fuel, is considered the world’s first filling station. Her experiences on the drive fed into later cars, among them a low gear for steep hills and leather linings for the brakes. In 1925 Benz’s memoirs appeared under the title Lebensfahrt eines deutschen Erfinders, The Life Journey of a German Inventor. They were written by his son-in-law and authorized by Benz.
engineering
The Analysis of Possible Failures
In the car and aerospace industries, and often elsewhere, a new product or process goes through an FMEA, a Fehlermöglichkeits- und Einflussanalyse, an analysis of possible failures and their effects. A team from different departments lists what could fail, where and how. For each possible failure it describes the consequences and identifies the causes. The aim is to avoid failures from the start rather than to find and correct them later. A general German standard for the method appeared in 1980 as DIN 25448. In 1996 the German Association of the Automotive Industry, the VDA, published an improved version. Since 2019 the car industry has used a common handbook of the VDA and its American counterpart, the AIAG.
The Wheel That Never Came Back
At the end of 1991 the board of the Deutsche Bundesbahn decided to test rubber-sprung wheels under seven dining cars of the ICE high-speed train. Passengers had complained about rattling dishes and wandernde Gläser, wandering glasses. In October 1992 the board was asked to introduce the new wheels across the whole ICE fleet. On 3 June 1998, near Eschede on the line from Hanover to Hamburg, the tire of one of these wheels broke at about 200 kilometers per hour. Metal fatigue set off a chain of events, and 101 people died. Three days later the railway took all ICE 1 trains out of service and ran them again only after ultrasound checks of every wheel. The Federal Railway Authority ordered all of about 2,880 rubber-sprung wheel sets replaced. Two railway officials and an engineer of the tire manufacturer were charged with not testing the wheels enough. German Wikipedia notes that Deutsche Bahn has not reintroduced the rubber-sprung wheels, trotz ihrer technischen Vorteile, despite their technical advantages.
From Research to Standard
For new technology, the German standards institute DIN offers a faster route than a full standard, the DIN SPEC. A regular DIN standard needs the consensus of all interested parties. A DIN SPEC needs only the agreement of the group that writes it, and it can be produced within a few months. Companies, research institutes and start-ups can start one, and a DIN SPEC can later become a full standard. DIN describes the purpose: So wird mit einer DIN SPEC der Markt für neue Produkte vorbereitet. (In this way a DIN SPEC prepares the market for new products.) The federal economics ministry runs a funding program called WIPANO. One of its aims is to turn the newest research results into norms and standards.
Combat Value Enhancement
On 25 October 1979 the first series-built Leopard 2 tank was handed over to the German army. Since then the tank has gone through several Kampfwertsteigerungen, combat value enhancements. Each version carries its own designation, such as A5 or A7V. From 2019, 104 tanks were upgraded to the A7V standard. The next version is called A8, and its delivery was planned for 2025 to 2026.
Sixty Years of the 911
The first Porsche 911 was presented on 12 September 1963 at the motor show in Frankfurt. It still has its engine at the rear, a six-cylinder boxer. Its generations carry their own names: original model, G model, 964, 993, 996, 997, 991 and 992. German Wikipedia sums up its history in one sentence: the 911 was kontinuierlich weiterentwickelt, continuously developed. The 996, from model year 1998, was the first 911 with a water-cooled engine. It also shared many parts, such as headlights and fenders, with the Boxster. This brought the new 996 a lot of criticism, above all because it could be mistaken for a Boxster. People called its headlights Spiegeleier, fried eggs. They were replaced in 2002.
The Fool of Lake Constance
Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin was a cavalry officer. After the maneuvers of 1890 he left active military service as a lieutenant general and began to work on a rigid airship. In 1894 an expert commission appointed by Kaiser Wilhelm II declared the project unworkable. Its members included the physicist Hermann von Helmholtz. After two sessions it advised the Prussian war ministry not to support the project. From 1895 people called Zeppelin a fool, and some laughed at him in the street. After a series of accidents with his airships he was known as der Narr vom Bodensee, the fool of Lake Constance. The Kaiser called him den Dümmsten aller Süddeutschen, the dumbest of all South Germans. In 1896 Zeppelin joined the Association of German Engineers, the VDI. On 2 July 1900 his first airship, LZ 1, rose from Manzell on Lake Constance.
The Small Patent
In 1891 Germany created the Gebrauchsmuster, the utility model. It protected models of tools and everyday objects, or parts of them. It was meant for small and medium-sized businesses that wanted to protect their inventions quickly and cheaply. It also spared the Patent Office from examining many inventions. Utility model number 1 went to a dial made of imitation ivory. On 8 July 1908 a coffee filter with a curved base was registered. It was Melitta’s. To this day, the Patent Office does not examine the substantive requirements of a utility model before registering it. Germans call it the kleines Patent, the small patent. At the end of 2017, 81,001 utility models were in force in Germany.
The Bridge on the Tay
On 28 December 1879 the new railway bridge over the Firth of Tay in Scotland collapsed under a train. In the first days of January 1880 Theodor Fontane wrote the ballad Die Brück’ am Tay, The Bridge on the Tay. In it Johnie, the bridge keeper’s son on the train, trusts his engine: Ein fester Kessel, ein doppelter Dampf, / Die bleiben Sieger in solchem Kampf. (A solid boiler, a double steam, they will win in such a fight.) Three witches frame the poem, and one of them has the last word: Tand, Tand / Ist das Gebilde von Menschenhand! (A trinket, a trinket is the work of human hands.) Today the ballad is a classic of German lessons in school. German Wikipedia calls it a warning against a hubris that believes in technology.
The Book Before the Engine
On 27 February 1892 Rudolf Diesel applied to the Imperial Patent Office in Berlin for a patent on a Neue rationelle Wärmekraftmaschine, a new rational heat engine. He received it on 23 February 1893, as a patent on a working process for combustion engines. In 1893 he also published a book: Theorie und Konstruktion eines rationellen Wärmemotors, Theory and Construction of a Rational Heat Engine. Through the book he came into contact with Heinrich von Buz, the general director of the Maschinenfabrik Augsburg. From 1893, with financial support from Krupp, Diesel developed his engine there. The first ignition came on 10 August 1893. The first working engine was finished in 1897. German Wikipedia notes: Aus der geplanten halbjährigen Entwicklungszeit waren vier lange Jahre mit zahlreichen Rückschlägen geworden. (The planned half year of development had become four long years with many setbacks.)