I really wish you would put the shilling at the end of the video. You already monetize the video, have a patreon account and do your occasional sales. Shilling in the video is unnecessary and is nothing but greed.
They say the first speeding ticket was given for someone going 8mph. I thought that was ridiculous but after watching the POV of driving the Benz Patent, oh my god, 8mph in an early car is terrifying lol
And if you think that's terrifying, consider that when the Ford model t was first introduced, there were still weren't many roads if there were any. Imagine going 40-45 miles an hour on wooden wheels with next to no roads!
@@crackedemerald4930few people could afford "horseless carriages" back then anyway, so patented or not there wouldn't be many of them around. And even roads were few so..
Sorry to nitpick but the Deutschmark was created in 1949. From 1871 to 1923 the currency was simply called "Mark". And 1 Mark was as much worth as 0.358423 grams of gold, so depending on the current price of gold, 600 Mark would be about $14,000. And yes, of course I am German. Who else would care about this kind of details? ;-)
so for efficiency's sake next time just say "I'm German" at the start and you wont have to write that bit about nitpicking. it will just be assumed.. ( i know you lot like to be efficient)
Oh come on, i thought most of europe was well informed about Marks and the Deutschmarks... For fucks sakes, i am near 30, and i refer to Euros as Deutschmarks quite often... Or at least, i think of the prices as they were in the olden days, as everyone from the older generations always thought of everything other than groceries in DMs... Houses, cars, everything that people bought that falls into that enduring category was talked about in DMs worth, not local currency... I didn`t know about the rest of the decimals, but i knew that 1M was .035g of gold... Hell, my father talks in Deutschmarks and carats only when talking business... Sure, we all use euros and know the math, but when you have a reference unit that like a Mark(or the olden dollar) was based on something real, or a currency that represented growth, stability, industry, quality and so on, well, it`s quite hard to just forget it and mindlessly accept some newfangled crap that oscillates all the time, or better said, the prices oscillate all the time, and the virtual currency gives the ridiculous price changes legitimacy... Those who have a solid point of reference like to fall back to it as a sanity check, just to confirm that they are sane and the world is just going batshit...
Fun fact: Well into the 1960s, you could buy replacement parts for the model T. Ford went out of its way to make sure it supported all vehicles it had made up until that time. My father grew up in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, a small college town. The fraternity house across the street had somebody go to the Ford factory every weekend and by a couple parts from their model T warehouse and he ended up constructing the only 1965 Ford Model T.
I had to giggle when you started having trouble driving uphill. That problem was discovered by Bertha Benz. The wife of Carl Benz. She "borrowed" Patent Motorwagen No.3 visit her mother. She drove that thing 65 miles. No one had ever driven that far before. So she kinda invented the road trip and the test drive. The story is awesome and worth a read.
7:27 correct, there were no gas stations. Those things used petroleum the drivers bought at the pharmacy 😁👍 (I strongly suggest you read the story of the first ever „long distance“ drive with the first car, which his wife bertha benz undertook. It’s a great story, and the pharmacy she bought petroleum on the way still exists today. I know it, because i work just around the corner 😉)
Robert's clearly having a really good time there. Jason Torchinsky, now at the Autopian, also did a number of similar and equally hilarious videos there.
About a month ago I saw a Benz bike like that and that night i had a dream where mercedes started producing it again and it was ultra luxurious. It came with an automatic choke, an umbrella hat to keep you dry, an engine block heater, and it was electric. I woke up laughing
For those interested in the big green army vehicle in the background at 2:04, this seems to be a BARC, an 80 ton amphibious vehicle mainly used in Vietnam. If you're ever in the Netherlands, there's one at the Overloon War Museum in Overloon that you can get up close and personal with. There's a short section on their website about the BARC if you're interested.
It's a LARC, and Regular Car Reviews has a video on this one, and there are several other videos on RU-vid of it being used at Lane to crush lesser vehicles.
Technically the Model T wasn't the first car made on an assembly line, that actually started with Oldsmobile. Ford was the first to start using a moving assembly line with conveyor belts.
Fun fact: In Germany, it's common knowledge Daimler and Benz invented the car. In France, it's equally common knowledge the Renault brothers did that. Truth is, they both filed their patents to their local authorities a few weeks apart. Not a lot of time in world that barely even knows electricity, let alone telephones or the internet. Who of the two really had the first working modern car parked outside their house, is lost to history. I like to think it's someone else entirely who just tinkered something in the farmyard for the fun of it, and never bothered to publish it.
First car was developed in ancient China and was powered by gunpowder, ancient China mass produced them in large factories and had paved roads in 507BC. China, is number one as usual
Ignore the chinese bot, they are everywhere, praising the glory of china. Strangely they are not seen under videos about democracy or tiananmen square..
Hey Aging! Fun fact : us, Europeans, have our own version of the Ford Model T. It was the Citröen Type A, which was André Citröen's response to the Model T. It hasn't been produced as much as the Model T, but it does take the same building techniques and drive a bit more like a "modern" car
3:25 True to Mercedes Benz form, their first car is over-engineered in the rack and pinion tiller for a linear actuator steering module instead of a regular bicycle steering mechanism.
With a bicycle-like steering you would have a direct force transmission, which would make it very hard to steer and also irregularities on the road could yank the front wheel to a side, which is very bad.
No,@@foximacentauri7891, I have seen original and reproduction ancient early automobiles that had bicycle steering wheels mechanisms (and also tillers directly turning the front fork). Plus, custom trikes made from VW Beetles that have basic motorcycle chopper front forks & wheels (or motorcycles turned into trikes with the two rear wheels being powered). The transmission is on the rear wheels.
11:54 correction, the oldsmobile curved dash was the first car produced on an assembly line. Another fun fact; the reason for black being the only color option for a time is because the black paint was the only paint that would dry quickly enough to keep up with production.
I agree he did a great job. The only slightly off thing they must have told him was the battery ignition as an upgrade. As far as I know they all came that way. Of course the "battery" was a lantern style dry cell mainly used for easy starting or as an emergency when there was a problem with the mag. I would love to see someone do an all inclusive video of all the quirks like jacking up the right rear wheel on cold days for easier starting, or Fixing a rod knock by removing a couple of rod cap shims.
These were both absolutely fun subjects... These videos often make me curious as to whether you knocked out tons of principal photography and got it all in the can on one long trip to Tennessee, or whether you bounce in and out of town for lots of smaller filming trips from time to time.
I appreciate you going on the road and doing these presentations. The editing on these are spot on. I do have to go back and rewatch parts, because you do such a detailed explanation that sometimes it takes a second to put everything back together. But I really do appreciate the detail. Driving that model T is bananas!
My uncle actually owns a T that he restored that has a bit of a storied life- originally it was apart of our family, was sold off the farm, modified, stashed in a barn, and traded around at local swap meets until he tracked it down. We once- ONCE- had it up to 35MPH when my great aunt and uncle visited for their last plane trip (in their late 80s at the time) where we all dressed up like 20s gangsters and fucked around with revolvers. Having it up to 35 was fucking horrifying, you're never riding "in" one but rather, "on top" of one because the seats are so springy to absorb all the road defects. EDIT: one thing Robert might not have fucked with much is how odd it is to control the ignition alongside the throttle. You have to do both *at the same time* to increase speed, because if you don't increase the spark rate eventually you'll drown the spark in gas and kill the engine. When learning to drive these, you'll repeatedly get up some speed and then kill the engine accidentally because you just didn't move the lever in time lol
Former company owner had a Model A he drove to the office sometimes (it was his first car- and he still had it)... he explained all the driving controls to me once and I just stood there still confused. I guess that's one big advantage of owning one of these early cars- nobody could steal the damn thing since they would have no idea how to even drive it. Lol.
I assume that's the _original_ Model A, then, and not the "Model A" they released after the T? My neighbor owns the newer one and he says it has pretty standard controls.
Until you found out that they only made like a dozen different keys, that were all numbered with corresponding numbers on the ignition lock tumbler. See a car with a #3 ignition, pull out a #3 key, there's a #7 pull out your #7 key.
There were multiple different black paint formulas for various parts. Most of the formulas aren't reasonable to use today. Faster is mostly a myth but having one color simplified inventory and paint processes making it more efficient and lower cost. You didn't need to sort parts by color. Fun question: If you needed to pick one color for the cars you manufacture, what would that color be?
A [the?} reason for the black paint is- a status symbol---black paint, or black cloth dye is hard to make. Hence, a mans ' black suit of cloathes denoted wealth. The hows and whys are not needed here, but I can off them, PM me. Leather seats= cheap, cloth seats =expensive, due to manufacturing issues costs
Thank you for the video. I remember my Great Grandfather (Grandpa Miller) showing me his son-in-law's Model T round about 1974. It was in the garage of the house that he shared with my Grandfather's mother (Grandma King). He showed me how to start it, and what the pedals did. He also showed me how to gather eggs from his ducks. I strongly remember him reading to me on his lap, and his pipe rack. I have the tool-shelf/ drawers that he made when he was younger; the same shelf that was hanging in his garage in front of the Model T.
The Mark that was used at the time of the Benz Patent Motorwagen isn't the same Mark that was used after the wars in Germany. It's best to look at its gold value at the time: 0,358 grams of gold per Mark. 600 Marks would have been about 215 grams of gold, which in todays US dollar is worth a bit over 14.000 dollars. That's still not a lot for a car, but it is quite a lot for a tricycle with a stationary engine bolted to it.
@@JasperJanssenthat number is for gold at the, the math checks out. Random fun fact, the cheapest 2023 model year car that I was able to find is $3000 more expensive then this thing adjusted for inflation.
I own a Model T. They are a lot of fun, and a lot easier to start if you have the optional electric start installed, which I don't think was available for the 1918 version you are driving. I think the electric start first became available in 1919 or 1920. For cars that have it, the electric start is a stomp switch is on the floor under your left foot. The Touring version (the one you drove) usually had a spare tire installed over the fake front "door" which made it even more obvious that it wasn't supposed to be used as a door. The Tudor model, as well as the four-door version called the "Fordor" (I'm not making that up) that I have both have functional driver's side doors, but I never use that door because I am nowhere near tiny enough to fit past the brake lever. The controls make sense when you realize that the pedals are all for controlling the transmission and the hand controls on the steering column are all for the engine. There are two additional very important controls that you didn't mention. The first is the "air conditioning", which is that the top half of the front window flips out to allow air to flow directly onto you, and the second is the manually operated windshield wiper, though it looks like that one doesn't have that installed. It is literally just a crank that you flip back and forth to make the wiper move. Also important to note is that the gas tank is under the front seat, and there is no fuel pump. Fuel is gravity fed. That means that if you are low on fuel and you go up a steep enough hill, the engine can end up higher than the fuel level, fuel stops flowing, and the car stops. If that happens, coast back down to the bottom of the hill, turn the car around, and reverse up the hill. That will keep the tank up higher than the engine no matter how steep the hill is and how close to empty your tank is. Your Touring version was $290 back in the day. My Fordor was $660. That works out to a bit over $5000 for the Touring and $11,000 for the Fordor in today's money.
The Panhard-Levassor of 1901 was one of the first "standard cars". It has a manual transmission, shifted through a clutch, drive to the rear wheels based on a shaft, and braking on the rear wheels through drums. It took until the 1920s before we had the relative safety of 4-wheel drums, and until the 1950s before disc brakes made an appearance. That Model T steering is definitely a precursor to the recirculating ball steering of the 1930s and onwards.
I simply adore it when Robert films at that museum. I'm always fascinated by a lot of the cars sitting in the background (besides whatever he's actually demonstrating, of course!). Lots of gorgeous machines, curious ones and plenty of adorably cute looking ones! I'd love to visit that place myself, someday.
Now the part about Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot inventing the car in 1769, this is debatable too since many historians consider the car to be invented even earlier than that - in 1672 by a Flemish missionary in China named Ferdinand Verbiest, although this vehicle was a toy rather than a full-sized vehicle. But anyways, it's a great thing knowing automobile history, thank you for this video 👍
if you want to stretch and distort definitions you can go back to Urg the cave man who discovered you can sit on one log as it rolls down a hill on two other logs as "the first car"
@@bwofficial1776 I heard that this happened because Cugnot didn't have an adequate braking system on the car. I wonder what that did to his insurance rates 😉.
For anyone wondering, the first "car" is called the french cugnot. It was built in 1769 and looks kinda like a 3 wheeled wagon being powered by a huge barrel
I would be nice for you to cover the Austin 7. It was one of the first mass produced cars to have a control layout similar to what you might find in a modern car. I think it's an interesting stepping stone after the Model T to modern cars
“It doesn’t have a throttle” - but, it has exactly a throttle! It’s just multiple holes in a tube instead of one big butterfly valve. What it doesn’t have is an air filter. And also a good way to modify the throttle on the go.
Fun fact: On her first, and in fact the first ever, cross country drive, where Bertha Benz covered around 100km in 12 hours* * * she actually sourced the fuel from pharmacys. It was called Ligorin, was basically petrol light, and was primarily used as a stain remover. Which is also why you could only get it there.
My cousin is a car restorer. He has a 1929?? Model T truck that was made in Canada. I know it was made in Canada as that is stamped on the engine, the radiator cap, the running boards, the tailgate, and the manifold. They must have been really proud of its lineage. The truck is in excellent condition as it spent most of its life as a prop in a mens clothing store. Cheers from Canada. ~ulrich
My aunt has 42 Model T cars in on old metal barn on her property. It is her long term retirement. When she exhausts her other sources she plans to start selling them to museums. Most of them worked when they were packed with grease and covered in tarps.
Man, I love these vintage cars. I always love looking closely at them to see what bizarre and brilliant solutions they came up with to make them work before there was any such thing as doing it "by the book." Back then they were just trying stuff and seeing what worked! Nobody knew yet what would catch on, so there was endless creativity in their mechanical solutions. I was looking at a 1908 Buick a while ago at a car show, and it had a massive flat twin mounted transversely under the floor, with the chain drive to the rear sandwiched between it and the flywheel and transmission. The hood was bolted down and only contained the gas tank and radiator. The two-cylinder engine had nearly the same displacement as some V8s nowadays, but made 30 hp - quite a lot when you consider model Ts made 20 with two more cylinders. I know most kids these days aren't interested in such old archaic cars, but anyone with a passing interest in mechanical engineering really should look into various antique cars, the engineering in them is really fascinating and clever and wildly different from what we have today, even if that's sometimes for good reason ;)
The nice thing about these early cars is that anyone can fix them with basic hand tools. Tolerances are loose and designs are simple. Mechanics were rare so you either worked on your car in your barn or you were rich enough to have a driver who did all that. You have to admire the early days when engineers were throwing things at the wall and seeing what stuck. If I had to own an early car it would likely be a Stanley steam car just because of how beautifully complex yet smooth they are.
@14:55 That would also happen in 70's Ford Trucks if the cab mounts were rusted out. The steering column was a main cab support (if cab mounts were gone) and the whole cab would move when you moved the steering. I've experienced that- it is not good. Lol.
This was the first video I found on explaining the DETAILS of the Benz-Motorwagen! Thank you SO much! I love this machine, it's sooo beautiful. Perhaps the only Mercedes I like. I'm a Citroënist (Citroën fan). Fords Model T was also a genius thing. I like best the "improved" Mod. T's from the last 2 years 1926 and 1927. Cordial greetings from a north german living in Switzerland/ lake geneva.
The T actually has two ignition systems. It's got magnetos, like a lawnmower, but those are hard to get going fast enough to be of any use when you crank-start it. That's where the battery ignition comes in, and it uses vibrator coils, so, bad mother of multiple spark discharge. The key goes one way for battery, other way for magneto. My dad and I drive one for a local museum, and we'll start it on battery, get the mixtures and timing right (mad dash before the engine chokes itself out), and then flip it over to magneto--being careful not to linger in the middle, because that's off, and it will stall if you're not quick about it. The box in that one looks the same as what we're working with.
I'm glad you talked about the transmission bit @17, earlier in the video when you were describing the gear shifting and such I was like "wait is that like an automatic transmission, but with ... manual input" .. so that answered that question... It's interesting to see the evolution of these parts and pieces in context to modern equivalents. Great video as always!
15:22 They made it that way to accommodate RHD markets in the UK and some other places, so when they put steering wheel on the right side, the left door would have hinges, and right door would be welded. Small detail to save production cost.
A while back Fully Charged got to play with a 1901 Waverly Model 22, one of the very first EVs around. You'd love it. You should persuade the Lane Motor Museum to get one so you can do a video on it.
It might be worth your time to visit the Stanley Hotel at Estes, CO and check out some of the original Stanley Steamer cars. I was happy to check them out when I visited.
The story of the first ride of the Benz Patent Motorwagen is insanely funny. To give a little hint, it was the first GTA and joyride. By his wife... Yeah... Benz was such a perfectionist, he didn't want to show it to the world 'unfinished'. His wife was quite fed up with this because she realized it would never see the light of day. He also squandered the family fortune, to make matters worse. So one day she decide to get her eldest sons out of bed early morning, steal the car for a joyride to her mother. And along the way she had to do roadside repairs as well. look up the story, because I cannot tell the story well enough to do it justice, it is an incredible story!
he is talking about the frame actually warping not just the vehicle tilting/shifting if you look at the driver side panel you can see it bending as he turns the wheel in that segment
I talked to a gentleman in Cooper, Texas 20 years ago that still daily drove a Model T. He had other modern cars, he did drive those on long trips, but around the tiny town of Cooper and going just a town or two over, he would drive the T. His 1920 model Model T was a 2 door sedan, and it had some period correct (ish) mods to allow it to work better on modern roads, such as an extra gear (I believe it was something like that) to allow his to do nearly 58 MPH.
The original gas stations were pharmacies in Germany, as they sold Ligroin. Bertha Benz, Carl Benz' wife and frankly, the more entrepneural of them both - and he was no slouch in that regard - took the Patentwagen Number 3 out on a 104km long tour with a halfway point at the pharmacy in Wiesloch. Her route has been memorialized, you can follow it today. I hope you have less issues than her, to quote wiki: On the way, she solved numerous problems. She had to find Ligroin, a solvent available only at dispensing chemists' shops, to use as fuel.[11] Thus the still existing Stadt-Apotheke (Town Pharmacy) in Wiesloch, some kilometres south of Heidelberg, became the world's first filling station.[12] A blacksmith had to help mend a chain in Bruchsal.[13] Brake linings were replaced in Bauschlott/Neulingen north of Pforzheim.[14] And Bertha Benz had to use a long, straight hatpin to clean a fuel pipe which had become blocked, and a garter to insulate a wire.[15]
6 месяцев назад
It should have also mentioned that she made that first cross-country road trip with her two teen sons Eugene and Richard. Giving all the credit to her is like talking about Edmund Hillary reaching the summit of Mount Everest without mentioning the Sherpa Tenzing Norgay.
That backfiring thing with the model t happens a lot when you start a dirt bike. Anyone who had started one knows the pain it causes too, I imagine a thumb would be so much worse.
For many years the car museum at Como Gardens, in The Basin Victoria Australia had a restored (not replica) 1896 Mercedes. Very occasionally the owner, George, would give it a squirt on the local roads.
I live near Wiesloch in Germany where Bertha Benz made her first fuel stop at a pharmacy there, thus making it the first fuel station (Clarkson voice) in the world…. Come and visit! :) Her son was with her on the trip and he had to push it up hills so your findings are very much correct. Btw there is a classic car club in Wiesloch and their logo is Bertha barreling and bounding about in her Patentwagen…
You really should make a video about the East German mopeds from Simson. Those things are super cool and still very popular with the youth over here due to some favorable laws.
It does have a throttle. The amount of holes open as it's running increases or decreases the vacuum thru the carb, metering the amount of fuel drawn into the intake
I wouldn't. I"d call it a way to have a constant velocity of air move through the intake given the number of holes and length between said holes and the intake, The more of the tube/holes that are exposed, the greater the volume of air is going to pass by the throat of the carb, hence creating more vacuum, and drawing more fuel out the float bowl of the carb..@@luelou8464
On the Benz, a recent episode of "A podcast of unnecessary detail" had a large chunk about it, Helen Arney has made a song. All about Mrs Benz stealing the prototype and driving to her mother as a publicity stunt. Very funny and worth a listen.
I was lucky to have very brief drive of a Model T last summer. All is well once you get your head around the controls, but as the car accelerates and mild panic sets in, the temptation to stamp on the middle (reverse) pedal to slow down is so strong!
When my father (B 1909-1994)) told me about his trip from PA to Ca. in T , in the 30's. I asked him how long it took. He only measured the trip by how many flats he had to fix...😄 He said you could get a used T for $25.
Thanks, it was surprisingly accessible and let me really see and understand these two important cars! The way it's so concise, visual, and simple, but delved into what's really inside these, is much better than most that I could have read about these cars; the other sources are usually either very vague and historical or very technical and dry.