S1 Ep63: Bertha Benz: Was This The First Road Trip Ever?
Past Gas
Donut Media
4.9 • 7.2K Ratings
🗓️ 18 January 2021
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Back in the 1870s, Bertha Benz was married to a penniless engineer named Karl Benz. What happened to Karl is now part of German automotive legend-- but Bertha had a crazy part to play in the Benz saga. Today on Past Gas, the story of Bertha Benz’s Big Ride, a 65 mile trek on a Benz Patent Motorwagen through the rugged, treacherous terrain of the Rhine Valley. Along the way, Bertha addressed mechanical issues on the fly, even originating a braking innovation that’s still in use today. It’s the story of the OG road trip-- driven by a fearless woman who put Benz on the map.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Big thanks to Golden for sponsoring this episode of Past Gas. |
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| 0:55.6 | The year was 1888. |
| 0:57.6 | Carl Benz had just patented the world's first motor car two years earlier |
| 1:03.0 | with the assumption that his incredible technical innovations would lead to successful business. |
| 1:08.4 | But he quickly found that his patent motor wagon wouldn't sell. |
| 1:13.1 | The world just wasn't ready for it. |
| 1:15.2 | People were skeptical that these loud, messy, horseless carriages would ever be reliable enough to be useful. |
| 1:22.0 | And so Carl's business chances looked shocked. |
| 1:24.7 | Much as they had been on a series of previously failed business ventures. |
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