Cars did not become a practical way to travel until petrol engines were invented in the 1880s. In 1885, the German engineer Karl Benz (1848–1929) successfully fitted a single-cylinder petrol engine to a three-wheeled tricycle. His success as a manager of a company producing industrial engines gave him the opportunity to work on his favourite hobby: the invention of a "horseless carriage": a wheeled vehicle powered not by horses but by an engine. In 1888, Benz’s wife, Bertha, took the car he had designed and built on a 100-kilometre (60-mile) drive to visit relatives, and so became the first person to undertake a long journey by car.

First car

In 1879, Benz was granted a patent for a two-stroke internal combustion engine he had invented. By 1885, he had designed a four-stroke engine, and added both an electrical ignition and a water-cooling system. The engine was fixed under the seat of a tricycle. The rear wheels were connected to it by belts and bicycle chains. The completed vehicle, called the Motorwagen, could reach speeds of 15 km/h (9 mph). To begin with, Benz's new car lurched dangerously around the streets of Mannheim, but a smooth ride was soon achieved. Patented in January 1886, it was the first automobile to generate its own power.