The role of women in the development of the car structure

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

At the end of the last century, when the history of world motoring was just beginning, few doubted the validity of the aphorism "a woman's place in the kitchen." However, in Germany there was a woman who not only managed to manage the house and raise five children, but also worked hand in hand with her husband, helping him to become one of the greatest minds of the nascent automotive industry. We are talking about Bertha Benz - the wife of Karl Benz, one of the creators of the modern car. We want to tell you about her unusual and daring journey, which led to truly historical results.

In early August 1888, Bertha, with her two sons, Eugen and Richard, decided to visit her mother. It was initially supposed to go by train, but 15-year-old Eugen unexpectedly offered to go in Karl's car. Bertha agreed: she had been proving to her husband for a long time that the car was ready to go to market. From Mannheim to Pforzheim, travelers had to cover about 80 km - for one of the first cars in the world, the distance is quite test.

The rally started early in the morning. It was clear that Karl would never have let his wife and two children go on a very risky journey at that time. Therefore, everything was done in deep secrecy. Leaving a note to her husband, Berta and her sons quietly slipped out of the house, all together they pushed the car away so that the noise of the engine would not wake Karl, and started.

We reached Heidelberg without incident, had a bite to eat and moved on. In Wislock, autorecords refilled the radiator with water and bought naphtha from the pharmacy, which was then poured into the fuel tank to liquefy gasoline to the required condition.

At Bretton, they met their first serious test - the Benz did not have enough power to overcome the climb. Richard, as the lightest, stayed behind the wheel, while Bertha and Eugen were pushing the car. All subsequent climbs were overcome in the same way.

Other sores were also treated with improvised means. The blockage of the gas line had to be eliminated with a pin from Bertha's hat, and the punctured ignition wire was insulated with an elastic band from her stockings. In Bodschlott, a shoemaker nailed new leather brake pads.

When Pforzheim finally appeared on the horizon, it was already dusk. The prospect of pushing a car without headlights uphill in the dark became quite real, but, fortunately, the last kilometers of the road went downhill, and soon Bertha was able to send her husband a telegram about her safe arrival.

Karl Benz, of course, was very worried about his loved ones, but having received the telegram, he realized that they had accomplished a kind of feat, and he can be truly proud of them.

When Bertha and her sons returned home, the question naturally arose, what to do with overcoming the climbs? And Karl Benz adequately answered the question of the testers: he added an additional gear to the gearbox. So, thanks to the "ladies'" rally, for the first time in the world the car received a multistage transmission.

But the car owes not only this improvement to the woman. For example, they say that the electric starter was invented after the famous American car manufacturer Brian Carter and a friend decided to help a woman whose car had stalled. Carter began to twist the crank, she gave up, hit him in the jaw, fracture, gangrene and … death. In general, in our opinion: "walked, slipped, fell, lost consciousness, woke up - plaster cast." According to legend (or maybe it’s not a legend at all), after this tragic incident, Charles Kettering invented the electric starter, which greatly simplified the use of a car and opened access to it for a much wider circle of women. It is no coincidence that advertisers who promoted electric starters to the market turned primarily to women."Now you can start your car from the cockpit! You no longer need to pick up this poker and wield it in an obscene position!" - these are typical advertising slogans of those years.

In the 1950s, when a car was for an American woman housewife in the United States what a metal kitchen stove was for her grandmother, car companies began to shape their policies with women's opinions and needs in mind. It was thanks to women's demand that pickups and later "minivans" became widespread, since these cars were most suitable for women for trips around the house, delivering children to kindergartens and schools, and in general for various household needs.

Today, the world's leading automakers are working on various gadgets to help make the vehicle more versatile for both men and women. For example, Ford this year introduced an electrically operated pedal adjustment that eliminates the need for short women to move the seat close to the steering wheel. There were such adjustments before, but only mechanical. Now, "Ford" allows a person of any height (regardless of gender - even tall women have short husbands) to adjust the pedals by simply pressing a button, rather than moving the seat. In the United States and Western Europe, this convenience also has additional meaning. After all, most cars there are equipped with airbags, which can perform their function only if the driver sits at a sufficient distance from the steering wheel.

For us, this circumstance so far (!) Does not really matter, but still moving the seat every time the father of the family gives way to his wife or daughter behind the wheel is, of course, less comfortable than adjusting the pedals or the seat height using an electric drive.

So Bertha Benz, who made the first female contribution to automotive innovation, did not end there. The specific characteristics of women - both physical, psychological, and consumer, will cause an appropriate response from the auto industry. And yet, "Hurray!" Berthe Benz, who pushed her husband's car up the hill with her own hands!

Vlad Pitersky