Bertha Benz was a Gear Head

And we’re not talking just a trip around the block.  On August 5 1888, she grabbed her two kids, hopped in the motorwagen and drove 66 miles from Mannheim to Pforzheim. It wasn’t an easy sunday drive by any means either. The brakes broke, so used her shoe soles as replacements. The carb got clogged, so she cleaned it out with a hair pin. She even had to stop and get “gas” (petroleum ether) at an apothecary, effectively making that pharmacy the first gas station in the world.

No one had seen this type of thing before. It was the first time a car had been driven anywhere by itself without a host of mechanics. And by a woman? To call it a spectacle would be an understatement.

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