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Events on Sunday 5 August 1888 1
1888Bertha Benz drives to PforzheimThe first road tripWithout telling her husband, Bertha Benz takes the Motorwagen and her two teenage sons on a hundred-and-six-kilometre run from Mannheim to Pforzheim. She buys fuel at a pharmacy, clears a blocked fuel line with a hatpin, insulates a wire with her garter and has a cobbler nail leather to the brake blocks — inventing the brake lining. The press coverage turns an eccentric contraption into a product, and her observations on the way lead directly to the addition of a lower gear.