Mercedes 35 hp
Encyclopedia
The Mercedes 35 hp was a radical early car model designed in 1901 by Wilhelm Maybach
Wilhelm Maybach
Wilhelm Maybach was an early German engine designer and industrialist. During the 1890s he was hailed in France, then the world centre for car production, as the "King of constructors"....

 and Paul Daimler
Paul Daimler
Paul Daimler was a German mechanical engineer who designed automobiles. He was the son of Gottlieb Daimler of Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft who had invented the petrol engine with Wilhelm Maybach....

, for Emil Jellinek
Emil Jellinek
Emil Jellinek, known after 1903 as Emil Jellinek-Mercedes was a wealthy European entrepreneur who sat on the board of Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft between 1900 and 1909. He specified an engine designed there by Wilhelm Maybach and Gottlieb Daimler for the first 'modern' car...

. Produced in Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....

, Germany, by the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft
Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft
Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft was a German engine and later automobile manufacturer, in operation from 1890 until 1926. Founded by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach, it was based first in Cannstatt...

 (DMG), it began the Mercedes
Mercedes (car)
Mercedes was a brand of the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft . DMG which began to develop in 1900, after the death of its co-founder, Gottlieb Daimler...

line of cars (since 1926 re-branded Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. Mercedes-Benz is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG...

).

A significant advancement over the previous generation of automobiles, which were modified stagecoach
Stagecoach
A stagecoach is a type of covered wagon for passengers and goods, strongly sprung and drawn by four horses, usually four-in-hand. Widely used before the introduction of railway transport, it made regular trips between stages or stations, which were places of rest provided for stagecoach travelers...

es, the Mercedes 35 hp is regarded as the first modern car.
it bore a powerful petrol engine
Petrol engine
A petrol engine is an internal combustion engine with spark-ignition, designed to run on petrol and similar volatile fuels....

, it was both wider and larger with a tailored steel chassis
Chassis
A chassis consists of an internal framework that supports a man-made object. It is analogous to an animal's skeleton. An example of a chassis is the underpart of a motor vehicle, consisting of the frame with the wheels and machinery.- Vehicles :In the case of vehicles, the term chassis means the...

, and its center of gravity
Center of mass
In physics, the center of mass or barycenter of a system is the average location of all of its mass. In the case of a rigid body, the position of the center of mass is fixed in relation to the body...

 was near the ground. Originally designed as a racing car, the Mercedes 35 hp was also made for normal road use.

Historical background

In the 19th century, Wilhelm Maybach
Wilhelm Maybach
Wilhelm Maybach was an early German engine designer and industrialist. During the 1890s he was hailed in France, then the world centre for car production, as the "King of constructors"....

's career as an industrial designer had been with Gottlieb Daimler
Gottlieb Daimler
Gottlieb Daimler was an engineer, industrial designer and industrialist born in Schorndorf , in what is now Germany. He was a pioneer of internal-combustion engines and automobile development...

 in their Cannstatt workshop (near Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....

), at which together they had pioneered the petrol engine production and were responsible for designing and making some of the world's first automobiles. By 1900, Maybach was the Chief Engineer
Chief Engineer
In marine transportation, the chief engineer is a licensed mariner in charge of the engineering department on a merchant vessel. "Chief engineer" is the official title of someone qualified to oversee the entire engine department; the qualification is colloquially called a "chief's...

 within the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (DMG), which had been an expansion of their previous company that originated from their small workshop. He never got along with the new capitalist board, and later left to join Ferdinand von Zeppelin
Ferdinand von Zeppelin
Ferdinand Adolf Heinrich August Graf von Zeppelin was a German general and later aircraft manufacturer. He founded the Zeppelin Airship company...

. In 1900, Gottlieb Daimler died and his son Paul Daimler
Paul Daimler
Paul Daimler was a German mechanical engineer who designed automobiles. He was the son of Gottlieb Daimler of Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft who had invented the petrol engine with Wilhelm Maybach....

 had taken his place beside Maybach.

As a side note, after the 1926 merger with the rival Benz & Cie., the company name was changed to Daimler-Benz
Daimler-Benz
Daimler-Benz AG was a German manufacturer of automobiles, motor vehicles, and internal combustion engines; founded in 1926. An Agreement of Mutual Interest - which was valid until year 2000 - was signed on 1 May 1924 between Karl Benz's Benz & Cie., and Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, which had...

 AG. The brand of cars became Mercedes-Benz at this point. In 1998, Daimler-Benz AG merged with Chrysler
Chrysler
Chrysler Group LLC is a multinational automaker headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan, USA. Chrysler was first organized as the Chrysler Corporation in 1925....

, becoming DaimlerChrysler
DaimlerChrysler
Daimler AG is a German car corporation. By unit sales, it is the thirteenth-largest car manufacturer and second-largest truck manufacturer in the world. In addition to automobiles, Daimler manufactures buses and provides financial services through its Daimler Financial Services arm...

 AG until the disposal of Chrysler in 2007, when the company name was changed to Daimler AG.

Origin of the name Mercedes

Emil Jellinek
Emil Jellinek
Emil Jellinek, known after 1903 as Emil Jellinek-Mercedes was a wealthy European entrepreneur who sat on the board of Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft between 1900 and 1909. He specified an engine designed there by Wilhelm Maybach and Gottlieb Daimler for the first 'modern' car...

 was a wealthy Austrian businessman and Austro-Hungarian diplomat living in Nice
Nice
Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of...

 on the French Riviera
French Riviera
The Côte d'Azur, pronounced , often known in English as the French Riviera , is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France, also including the sovereign state of Monaco...

. His daughter Adriana Manuela Ramona Jellinek, 10 years old at the car's construction, was given the pet name "Mércédès
Mércédès Jellinek
Mercédès Adriana Manuela Ramona Jellinek called Mercédès was the daughter of Austrian automobile entrepreneur Emil Jellinek and his wife Rachel Goggmann Cenrobert. She was born on September 16, 1889 and named as a term of endearment Mercedes...

", from the Spanish word meaning mercy, to commemorate her French mother's Sepharadi family background. Jellinek used to name his possessions after her, such as his mansions, the automobiles he sold, his racing car team, etc. He himself was often known as Monsieur Mercedes.

As an avid fan of the DMG brand, Jellinek had signed up two DMG-Phoenix cars for competing in the Nice-La Turbie race on 30 March 1900, introducing the Mercedes name then, after his own daughter, for both his racing team and its cars. A tragedy ensued when Wilhelm Bauer, the chief mechanic of the DMG, raced one of the cars and was killed after the first curve of the race. Consequently, the DMG canceled all further involvement in motorsport
Motorsport
Motorsport or motorsports is the group of sports which primarily involve the use of motorized vehicles, whether for racing or non-racing competition...

.

Nonetheless, Jellinek persuaded the DMG for the design of a new model for competing again. He insisted that the powerful engine should be developed by both Maybach and Paul Daimler and be named Daimler-Mercedes, after his daughter. Such renaming was granted because the Daimler brand of the DMG had been already conceded to the French Panhard
Panhard
Panhard is currently a French manufacturer of light tactical and military vehicles. Its current incarnation was formed by the acquisition of Panhard by Auverland in 2005. Panhard had been under Citroën ownership, then PSA , for 40 years...

carmaker for all France.

Development

Mercedes 35 hp (1901)
Overall stability at high speeds: Large wheelbase. Wide track. Low center of gravity (lower engine).
75 km/h (47 mph). 35 hp (950 rpm). Engine speed 300 to 1000 rpm.
Light high performance engine: 4 In Line cylinders. Bore/stroke ratio: 116x140 mm. Displacement: 5918 cc. Cylinder heads part of the castings. Two carburetors, one for each cylinder-pair. Driver-controlled throttling of intake valves. Two camshafts.
Low-voltage magneto ignition.
Aluminium crankcase (pioneer), horizontally divided.
4-forward/1-reverse transmission.
Lower weight : Press steel framework. Lightweight metals. Trimmed amount of frames.
"Honeycomb" radiator.
Chain drive to rear wheels.


Jellinek specified revolutionary improvements. Unlike the previous generation of cars, unstable motorized coaches of narrow high bodies which were so prone to overturn, the novel Mercedes should be longer, wider, and of a lower center of gravity. Also it would have a light steel body and strong chassis, onto which the engine would be firmly fixed near the ground and lowering the car's center of gravity. 36 of these cars would be delivered, for the large sum of 500,000 goldmarks
German gold mark
The Goldmark was the currency used in the German Empire from 1873 to 1914.-History:Before unification, the different German states issued a variety of different currencies, though most were linked to the Vereinsthaler, a silver coin containing 16⅔ grams of pure silver...

.

Over the following months of 1900 Jellinek oversaw the process closely, at first through daily telegrams, and subsequently, by traveling personally. Maybach tested the new car for the first time on 22 November and Jellinek received his first delivery on 22 December 1900.

In January 1901, Emil Jellinek's Mercedes team tested six of the new Mercedes 35 hp in the Pau Grand Prix, but the racecar was of a disappointing performance by multiple technical complications and enduring just for few laps. However in the Nice-La Turbie event of March 1901, it was much different. Jellinek participated through five Mercedes 35 hp and the German driver Wilhelm Werner. The cars dominated the race from start to finish with a record average speed of 51.4 km/h (31.9 mph), beating the previous 31.3 km/h (19.4 mph) and reaching top speeds of 86 km/h (53 mph). Those results easily outclassed all other competing cars in any capacity. The automotive world was so astonished that Paul Meyan, director of the French Automobile Club, stated: "We have entered the Mercedes era".

In Stuttgart, DMG mounted two additional back seats on the Mercedes-35 hp, transforming it for a family car. Between March and August 1901, it manufactured two more Mercedes models, the 12/16 hp and the 8/11 hp. The Mercedes was so successful that the production lines of the DMG ran at full capacity. The Mercedes trademark was used on DMG production automobiles from 23 June 1902. It was formally registered on 26 September 1902.

In June 1903, Emil Jellinek changed his own name to Jellinek-Mercedes, stating: "This is probably the first time that a father has taken his daughter's name".

Dimensions

The Mercedes 35 hp had a wheelbase
Wheelbase
In both road and rail vehicles, the wheelbase is the distance between the centers of the front and rear wheels.- Road :In automobiles, the wheelbase is the horizontal distance between the center of the front wheel and the center of the rear wheel...

 of 2.345 metres and a track
Track (automobile)
The Track of a road vehicle is the distance at which both the front and rear wheels are spaced apart from each other on the axle....

 of 1.400 metres. Its wooden wheel
Wheel
A wheel is a device that allows heavy objects to be moved easily through rotating on an axle through its center, facilitating movement or transportation while supporting a load, or performing labor in machines. Common examples found in transport applications. A wheel, together with an axle,...

s were all the same size.

The total weight was also dramatically reduced to 1,200 kg
Kilogram
The kilogram or kilogramme , also known as the kilo, is the base unit of mass in the International System of Units and is defined as being equal to the mass of the International Prototype Kilogram , which is almost exactly equal to the mass of one liter of water...

 by making the main chassis
Chassis
A chassis consists of an internal framework that supports a man-made object. It is analogous to an animal's skeleton. An example of a chassis is the underpart of a motor vehicle, consisting of the frame with the wheels and machinery.- Vehicles :In the case of vehicles, the term chassis means the...

 frame
Frame (vehicle)
A frame is the main structure of the chassis of a motor vehicle. All other components fasten to it; a term for this is design is body-on-frame construction.In 1920, every motor vehicle other than a few cars based on motorcycles had a frame...

 of pressed steel of carefully designed U-shaped cross section.

The relatively light engine (230 kilograms, 6.6 kg/hp) was mounted over the front axle
Axle
An axle is a central shaft for a rotating wheel or gear. On wheeled vehicles, the axle may be fixed to the wheels, rotating with them, or fixed to its surroundings, with the wheels rotating around the axle. In the former case, bearings or bushings are provided at the mounting points where the axle...

 without any extra sub frames and, so, its center of gravity was closer to the ground.

Axles

The wooden wheels of the Mercedes 35 hp were non-removable, featuring:
  • 12 spoke
    Spoke
    A spoke is one of some number of rods radiating from the center of a wheel , connecting the hub with the round traction surface....

    s
  • steel covers
  • nearly identical pneumatic tire
    Tire
    A tire or tyre is a ring-shaped covering that fits around a wheel rim to protect it and enable better vehicle performance by providing a flexible cushion that absorbs shock while keeping the wheel in close contact with the ground...

    s of 910x90-front / 1020x120-rear


There were two braking systems one hand operated and the other by foot.
  • The main brake was the hand brake
    Hand brake
    In cars, the hand brake is a latching brake usually used to keep the car stationary, and in manual transmission vehicles, as an aid to starting the vehicle from stopped when going up an incline - with one foot on the clutch , the other on the accelerator In cars, the hand brake (emergency brake,...

     which acted on the rear wheels which had 30 centimeter drums.
  • The secondary, foot brake
    Left-foot braking
    Left-foot braking is the technique of using the left foot to operate the brake pedal in an automobile, leaving the right foot dedicated to the throttle pedal...

    , acted on the chain drive's intermediate shaft and was water-cooled.


Both axles were rigid, equipped with semi-elliptic springs
Spring (device)
A spring is an elastic object used to store mechanical energy. Springs are usually made out of spring steel. Small springs can be wound from pre-hardened stock, while larger ones are made from annealed steel and hardened after fabrication...

. The steering-axles were designed to minimise transmission of road shocks to the driver.

The steering column
Steering column
The automotive steering column is a device intended primarily for connecting the steering wheel to the steering mechanism or transferring the driver's input torque from the steering wheel.-Secondary functions:...

 was inclined backwards unlike the vertical shaft on many of its contemporaries.

Drive system

The engine of the Mercedes 35 hp was at the front of the car driving the rear wheels through a large roller chain
Roller chain
Roller chain or bush roller chain is the type of chain drive most commonly used for transmission of mechanical power on many kinds of domestic, industrial and agricultural machinery, including conveyors, wire and tube drawing machines, printing presses, cars, motorcycles, and simple machines like...

.

The gearshift
Manual transmission
A manual transmission, also known as a manual gearbox or standard transmission is a type of transmission used in motor vehicle applications...

 was at the driver's right side, featuring a gate change system with four forward speeds and a reverse gear. The drum like compact clutch
Clutch
A clutch is a mechanical device which provides for the transmission of power from one component to another...

 system was attached to the flywheel
Flywheel
A flywheel is a rotating mechanical device that is used to store rotational energy. Flywheels have a significant moment of inertia, and thus resist changes in rotational speed. The amount of energy stored in a flywheel is proportional to the square of its rotational speed...

.

The flywheel consisted of a self-adjustable coil spring made up of wound spring steel. The tension at which the clutch operated was regulated by a conical cam.

Engine

The main bearings were made of magnalium, an aluminium
Aluminium
Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al, and its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....

 alloy
Alloy
An alloy is a mixture or metallic solid solution composed of two or more elements. Complete solid solution alloys give single solid phase microstructure, while partial solutions give two or more phases that may or may not be homogeneous in distribution, depending on thermal history...

 with 5% of magnesium
Magnesium
Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg, atomic number 12, and common oxidation number +2. It is an alkaline earth metal and the eighth most abundant element in the Earth's crust and ninth in the known universe as a whole...

. The crankcase
Crankcase
In an internal combustion engine of the reciprocating type, the crankcase is the housing for the crankshaft. The enclosure forms the largest cavity in the engine and is located below the cylinder, which in a multicylinder engine are usually integrated into one or several cylinder blocks...

 was also made of aluminium.

The four cylinders, cast in grey iron with fixed heads, gave a total displacement
Engine displacement
Engine displacement is the volume swept by all the pistons inside the cylinders of an internal combustion engine in a single movement from top dead centre to bottom dead centre . It is commonly specified in cubic centimeters , litres , or cubic inches...

 of 5,918 cc (bore/stroke: 116x140 mm), and were arranged in pairs each pair with a single spray-nozzle carburetor
Carburetor
A carburetor , carburettor, or carburetter is a device that blends air and fuel for an internal combustion engine. It is sometimes shortened to carb in North America and the United Kingdom....

.

The intake and exhaust valves were no longer opened by cylinder pressure but by camshafts at both sides of the engine driven by gears from the flywheel.

The engine also incorporated:
  • low-voltage magneto
    Magneto (electrical)
    A magneto is an electrical generator that uses permanent magnets to produce alternating current.Magnetos adapted to produce pulses of high voltage are used in the ignition systems of some gasoline-powered internal combustion engines to provide power to the spark plugs...

     with make and break spark ignition. This was fitted at Jellinek's demand, replacing the antiquated hot tube system.
  • pumped water cooling system
  • fan behind the radiator

The engine was started by a hand crank aided by the presence of a decompressor.

Maybach's tubular radiator, patented in 1897, known as a honeycomb radiator, was similar to the present time ones. Its rectangular grille
Grille
A grille or grill is an opening of several slits side by side in a wall or metal sheet or other barrier, usually to let air or water enter and/or leave but keep larger objects including people and animals in or out.-Spelling:In the United States, "grille" is used to differentiate the automotive...

had 8,070 pipes of 6x6 mm each with a square cross section to improve airflow, and holding 9 litres of water. The airflow was assisted by a fan located behind the radiator.

The Mercedes 35 hp engine ran between 300 and 1000 rpm, the speed controlled by the driver using a lever on the steering wheel. Its peak output was 35 HP at 950 rpm.

The road car achieved typical speeds of 70–75 km/h (43–47 mph). The racing version could exceed 85 km/h (53 mph).

External links

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