Dorigi Project

 After completing his formal education, Benz received professional training at several companies, but none of them truly captured his heart. What fascinated him instead was the internal combustion engine, which he studied alone at night after working more than 12 hours during the day. Benz realized that in order to create an internal combustion engine and the necessary machinery to make it work, he needed skills from various fields. For this reason, he trained at different companies for seven years to master the techniques he required. As a result, Benz acquired diverse expertise in various factories and laid the foundation for building a car that could run without horses. His training began at the mechanical engineering company Maschinenbau-Gesellschaft in Karlsruhe, where he worked for two years handling different machines. Later, he moved to Mannheim, working as a draftsman and designer at a meter factory. In 1868, he joined Gebrüder Benckiser Eisenwerke und Maschinenfabrik in P...

After being introduced to the genius young Maybach through Werner’s recommendation, Daimler took an interest in him and kept a watchful eye on his growth. Indeed, Maybach was a man with brilliant ideas. Without realizing it, Daimler became his mentor, and by 1865, when Maybach turned 19, he was already capable of designing excellent engines. From then until Daimler’s death in 1900, Maybach worked alongside him as his assistant and lifelong colleague. One quiet morning in 1865, Maybach entered Daimler’s office holding a newspaper and greeted him. “Good morning, Mr. Daimler.” “Ah, good morning.” Maybach continued, showing Daimler a page from the newspaper. “Have you read today’s paper?” “No, not yet. Has something important happened?” “Well, yes. There’s an article I can’t quite understand.” “What kind of article is it?” “You’ll understand once you read this page.” “All right then. While I read, could you bring me a cup of hot tea?” Soon Daimler’s eyes fell on the page Maybach had opened...

 In 1863, when Daimler was just becoming acquainted with Maybach, at the main gate of Karlsruhe Polytechnic in Germany, a young man was riding out on a bicycle. He was a kind-looking and attractive man who had studied under the famous professor Ferdinand Redtenbacher (1809.7.25 – 1863.4.16) at the Polytechnic. He was speeding down the road on a velocipede fitted with solid rubber tires. On the same road, carriages and large steam cars were puffing out black smoke from their chimneys. The young man skillfully maneuvered between the massive steam cars, riding with acrobatic movements. Those bulky steam cars could not catch up with him and only fell farther and farther behind. At that time, steam cars could overtake a man riding a velocipede, but if the boiler pressure rose too high, there was always the risk of an explosion. So, they could not drive at maximum speed. As he observed all this, he imagined making the large internal combustion engines he had seen at the Polytechnic into ...

 After meeting Lenoir in France and returning to Germany, Daimler began working around the end of 1863 as a Technical Manager at the Bruderhaus Mechanical Engineering Factory in Reutlingen, Germany. Bruderhaus, meaning “House of Brothers,” was like an orphanage school that took care of children who had nowhere else to go. Bruderhaus in Reutlingen Daimler lived a relatively quiet life there, making concrete plans for the direction he wanted to pursue. One day, while Daimler was working in his office, Gustav Werner, the founder and supervisor of Bruderhaus, came to visit him. Daimler greeted Werner warmly. “Mr. Werner, welcome.” “Hello, Mr. Daimler. I hope I’m not disturbing you while you’re busy.” “It’s quite all right. Please, have a seat.” As Daimler guided Werner to a seat, Werner looked around the office. Piles of design drawings and unidentified machines surrounded the room, most of them marked with labels. “Mr. Daimler, your office looks truly lively.” “Haha! I’ll take that as...

 Lenoir approached a strangely shaped three-wheeled carriage. At the front, it had a vertical circular handle, like those used in steam cars of the time, connected to the front wheel, and at the very front, a horn was attached to alert people that the carriage was coming. What was unusual was that, unlike an ordinary carriage, there was a small box-like object attached beneath it, and on the right side of this box, a gear protruded, connected by a chain to the drive shaft of the wheel. Lenoir’s Hippo “Mr. Daimler, I named this fellow ‘Hippo’. Please, climb aboard.” Normally, to start a steam engine, you had to stoke the fire until enough steam was produced for the engine to operate. But Lenoir’s Hippo was completely different. Although it shook violently, it was lighter, more agile, and faster than any carriage powered by a steam engine so far. “My goodness! Could it be… is this the coal gas engine you invented two years ago?” When Daimler, seated next to Lenoir, asked in amazement...

 One day in 1863, in the Strait of Dover between France and England. Under a clear and beautiful sky, a white and elegant passenger ship was traveling from England to France. This ship was powered by a steam engine, and smoke was rising from the large chimney in the middle of the ship. Standing at the back of the ship, looking at the chimney, was a man who turned toward England, lost in thought. This man was the 29-year-old Gottlieb Wilhelm Daimler, with a stern appearance and shining eyes. He was leaving England and returning to his homeland, Germany. "Now is the time for me to create the engine I desire. An engine more efficient and more powerful than the steam engine I once worked on at the Maschinenfabrik Grafenstaden, and stronger than the gas engine invented by Étienne Lenoir in France. I will create it, and the whole world will take notice of me." With this determination, Daimler was leaving England, where he had studied for two years out of thirst for knowledge and am...

Until the mid-1800s, most household lighting at night relied on primitive lamps that used animal fat candles or rags soaked in oil as wicks. However, these lighting devices had problems: the illumination was weak, and soot accumulated, making the interior dirty. With the Industrial Revolution, populations were moving from rural areas to industrial cities, and people increasingly needed indoor lighting that allowed them to see well at night. The best lighting fuel of the time was whale oil. It was highly sought after because of its excellent lighting effect, but due to the limits of whaling, it was scarce and expensive. In the 1790s, William Murdoch, a partner of Watt and Boulton, discovered a method of producing coal gas by heating coal in the absence of air. He also devised a way to store this gas and supply it through pipes. By the mid-19th century, coal gas began to replace whale oil for street lamps, shops, and household lighting. However, coal gas lighting had several flaws. It...

 One of the most important parts of an automobile is the tire, which is made of rubber. It is impossible to talk about cars without mentioning rubber. Around 1770, the English chemist Joseph Priestley was handling a lump of natural rubber when he accidentally dropped it onto a piece of paper. When he picked it up, he noticed that the writing on the paper had become faintly erased. Thus, the eraser was born. From then on, rubber began to be used in England and France as an erasing material, and thanks to its hardness, flexibility, abrasion resistance, and sound-absorbing qualities, it was applied to balls, raincoats, rubber tubes, and many other fields. However, because rubber changed too easily with temperature, it was still not suitable for use in automobile tires. The technology that solved this limitation was discovered quite accidentally by an American named Charles Goodyear. Charles Goodyear Goodyear purchased the patent rights for sulfur treatment from Nathaniel M. Hayward, w...

James Watt of England met J. Roebuck, the founder of the Carron Works, and became his business partner in 1768. With a loan from Joseph Black, he built a small test engine. In 1769, he obtained the famous patent for “a new method of reducing steam and fuel consumption in fire engines.” After Roebuck went bankrupt in 1772, Watt continued his efforts with the support of Matthew Boulton (1728–1809), a manufacturer who ran the Soho Works in Birmingham. In 1774, they founded the Boulton & Watt Company and began producing Watt-type steam engines. In 1775, Watt and Boulton began a business partnership that lasted for the next 25 years. Thanks to Boulton’s financial support, progress on the engine accelerated rapidly. In 1776, two engines were installed—one for pumping water in the Staffordshire coal mine, and another for air-blowing at the ironworks of the famous J. Wilkinson. Watt’s steam engine was smaller than Newcomen’s steam engine, yet it consumed only about one-third of the coal wh...