"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn)
08/07/2014 at 09:43 • Filed to: None
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"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn)
08/07/2014 at 09:43 • Filed to: None | 7
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Bertha Benz, née Ringer, was born in 1849 and was the wife of famed automobile inventor !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . In 1888, she became the first person, let alone the first woman, to drive an automobile over a long distance when she and her children completed the 106 km (66 mi) drove from their home in Mannheim to Pforzheim, driving Karl's !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The stated purpose of the drive was to visit her mother, but Bertha's true intention was prove that her husband's invention would be successful if it could be shown to be useful to the general public. Both she and her husband were heavily invested in the success of Karl's automotive venture. Bertha had invested before they were married, though she lost her power to act as an investor when they were married.
Bertha and Karl Benz, 1914
The drive was not without mishaps, and Bertha showed her true Jalopitude. She had to procure ligroin from an apothecary for fuel, and she had to find a blacksmith to help fix a chain. She used a hatpin to clear a clogged fuel line. When the brakes needed to be repaired, Bertha told a shoemaker to put leather on the brake block to act as a brake lining to increase stopping power. She also suggested to Karl that the automobile needed additional gears for climbing hills. These and other ideas were incorporated into future versions of the automobile.
In 2008, the Bertha Benz Memorial Route was created, and modern drivers can trace her 194 km round trip from Mannheim via Heidelberg to Pforzheim and back.
[Wikipedia:
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505Turbeaux
> ttyymmnn
08/07/2014 at 09:51 |
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good post, thanks! I wish more people on the road were that innovative with fixes
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ttyymmnn
> 505Turbeaux
08/07/2014 at 09:53 |
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Well, to be fair to modern drivers, Bertha didn't really have many options!
davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com
> ttyymmnn
08/07/2014 at 10:16 |
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I would have loved to have a beer with her, I think.
http://jalopnik.com/meet-bertha-be…
2222222222212
> ttyymmnn
08/07/2014 at 10:36 |
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She looks utterly stoked to be driving in the lead picture. Surprisingly high quality pic too.
cabarne4
> ttyymmnn
08/07/2014 at 10:38 |
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You forgot the best part: she stole the car while Karl was out of town.
So she also invented car theft!
Buick Mackane
> ttyymmnn
08/07/2014 at 13:54 |
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Technically, she was the first to drive a motor driven tricycle over a long distance.
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ttyymmnn
> Buick Mackane
08/07/2014 at 13:55 |
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Picky, picky.
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Buick Mackane
> ttyymmnn
08/07/2014 at 22:59 |
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Well, lets get the facts straight. The first person to drive a four wheeled car over a long distance (the first road trip in a four wheeled car) probably be Horacio Jackson, a doctor from Vermont. In 1903 he drove a Winton touring car from San Francisco to New York, something that had never been done before. Out of San Francisco on May 23, 1903, rolled retired doctor Horatio Nelson Jackson and ex-bicycle racer Sewall K. Crocker, buzzing along in a 20-horsepower cherry-red Winton touring car. Nine weeks later, in the early hours of July 26, they crawled across Manhattan's Fifth Avenue with Bud the dog in tow, winning a $50 bet that they couldn't make the first cross-country road trip.
