27 Feb THE FIRST AUTOMOBILE
Two inventors, one goal – the automobile: on 29 January 1886, Carl Benz applied for a patent for his three-wheeled ‘vehicle with gas-engine drive’ – effectively the birth of the automobile. Shortly afterwards, Gottlieb Daimler built his motor carriage. Together, the two vehicles formed the first link of an unbroken chain of motoring progress over the past 140 years.
To recognise this historical event and to celebrate our love of the automobile, during the course of this year the monthly FMM newsletter will publish a number of significant other Mercedes-Benz anniversaries. This month, we start with a look at that very first automobile.
The Benz Velo was introduced by Carl Benz in 1894 as the follow-up to the Patent-Motorwagen. A total of 67 Benz Velos were built in 1894 and 134 in 1895. The early Velo had a 1-litre 1,5 hp (1,1 kW) engine, and later a 3 hp (2 kW) engine giving a top speed of 19 km/h. The Velo was officially introduced by Benz as the Velocipede, and became the world’s first standardized serial production car. The Velocipede remained in production between 1894 and 1902, with a final count of over 1 200 produced.
The relationship between South Africa and Mercedes-Benz dates back to 1896 with the arrival of the Benz Velo. The company’s production ledger for July to August 1896 shows vehicle number 383 – a Velo – was dispatched to ‘Capland’ on July 25. The car was shipped aboard the steamship Herzog. The Standard and Digger’s News of 22 December 1896 reported the car had landed in Port Elizabeth and was railed to Pretoria. The reason why it took five months to reach South Africa is not known, although The South African Mining Journal of 2 January 1897 suggested the delay had been caused “… by the stupidity of the Hamburg forwarding agent…” Whatever the reason, it was almost certainly to have been the first motor car to appear in the southern hemisphere.
The Velo was ordered by Pretoria entrepreneur John Percy Hess and A E Reno, one of the founders of the Pretoria News. It was presented to the South African Republic as ‘The Invention of the Age’ at Pretoria’s Berea Park on 4 January 1897 in the presence of the State President, Paul Kruger. On January 13 it made a further appearance at The Wanderers in Johannesburg, billed as ‘The Rage and Topic of all Europe’. At the time of the Benz reaching SA, it was reported that only 720 vehicles were privately owned and operated in the civilised world.
The car was sold to Pritchard Street coffee merchant Albert H Jacob who used it extensively to market his wares. However, six years later the car, nicknamed The Coffee Pot, was destroyed in a warehouse fire, reportedly at Jacob’s premises.
