The story of Karl and Bertha Benz is a synthesis of scientific ambition, adventure and passion which often characterize the life of the most ingenious minds. Karl Benz, considered as the automobile inventor, was able to adapt the four-stroke engine to a new application, the self-moving coach. Anyway, the discovery of the potential of this innovation (which was patented in 1886) is due to Bertha Benz. She had indeed “invented” the journey by car, namely completing the first long distance trip covered aboard a motorcar, in history. An incredible act of optimism, courage and forward thinking for that age, sneaking out from her husband. Since then, among commercial intuitions and engineering development, began the rise of a new industry, destined to change the way of moving, travelling and our cities, for ever.
Credits
Text: Gianluca Cedolin
Narrated by: Giuditta Avellina
Editorial coordination: Teresa Bellemo
Sound: Luca Piceno
Editorial staff: Daniele Monaco e Michela Marrocu
Interview: Alessandro Bruni, automotive historicist and car specialist at Ruote da sogno
A production by: Studio Editoriale
Pioneers of the future - A podcast series by Infra The Mundys Journal
Pioneers of the future is the second podcast season by Infra Journal. A four-installments journey through the times up to the most recent years, featuring the lives and adventures of the innovators who shaped our present.
How is a breakthrough invention conceived? Which challenges had its creator to overcome? What were the needs, the fears and the beliefs of these pioneers in thought and imagination? Pioneers of the future collects the stories of the masters who changed the course of times, through a podcast narration, voices, anecdotes and interviews.
Men and women, well known and less well known, who remained faithful to their ideals and intuitions, even when nobody else was able to see along with them. Nowadays, their ideas are everyday in our hands, as Prometheus's sparkle legacy, still capable of lighting up our way of living, communicating, moving and traveling. All around the world.