[This column is jointly planned by Tencent Automobile and Mars Talking Car]
Welcome to this issue of "Mars Rover Fun Station", many times, cars are considered to be men's big toys. Even if there are many female drivers, in the eyes of many people, female drivers are a "road killer". In fact, the probability of female drivers having accidents is far less than that of male drivers, but it is only the accidents that look more than one strange, which leads to such stereotypes.
Although we have always said that men and women are equal, the automotive industry still has a certain prejudice against female drivers and female practitioners. But as everyone knows, women have also made many contributions in the development of automobiles. Today, we will introduce you to the heroes of the automotive industry.
The first car driver --- Beta Mercedes-Benz
Many people know that the inventor of the first car was Carl Benz, the founder of Mercedes-Benz Cars, but little is known about who was the first driver of the car. In fact, the first car driver was Carl Benz's wife, Beta Benz.
In 1895, Carl Benz invented the first car "Mercedes Benz I", and obtained a patent for automobile invention the following year, marking the official birth of the great means of transportation. However, due to the immature technology of the time, the car was ridiculed as a "monster on the road", and the inventor Carl Benz once wanted to give up the cause.
Beta Mercedes looked in her eyes and was anxious in her heart. In order not to waste her husband's career, she made a brave decision. One early morning in August 1988, she drove in her husband's car with her two children to her mother's house in Pforzheim, 100 kilometres away. There were many difficulties on the way, the car broke down, could not climb the hill.... But Mrs. Beta Mercedes and her two children did not give up, the car broke down and started to repair it, and when the slope could not climb up, she got down and pushed the cart, running from early morning to evening, and then successfully arrived at its destination.
This extraordinary long-distance car journey experiment changed the minds of the people at the time, and curiosity began to arise about the car without a horse, and praise for the courage of Beta Mercedes-Benz. Excited Beta Mercedes-Benz sent a telegram to her husband overnight: "The car has withstood the test, please apply for the Munich Messe" quickly." Karl Benz immediately presented his car at the Munich Messe, attracting a large number of customers and becoming the starting point for the real foundation of Mercedes-Benz's career.
More than 130 years ago, Mr. Carl Benz invented the car with his own wisdom, beta Mercedes-Benz used his extraordinary courage to make the car, and today, the "Mercedes-Benz One" is quietly displayed in the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany, as if telling the legendary story of the carl Mercedes-Benz couple.
Housewife who invented the wiper --- Mary Anderson
Now, car wipers are an important part of the car, ensuring the safe travel of people in rainy weather. But wipers did not appear at the beginning of the car, in the early days, drivers in order to see the road clearly in rain and snow, need to stick their heads out of the car window, or stop every once in a while to wipe the window.
Mary Anderson was a housewife in the United States at the time, with a wealthy and well-educated family. Seeing this, she used her brain to invent a water removal device, and in November 1903, she obtained a technical patent. This device controls the rubber sheet on the window through the manual operating lever to achieve the purpose of scraping back and forth to remove the water droplets on the window, which is the technical principle of modern wipers. Later generations only changed the manual device to electric control, which was used for hundreds of years.
Unfortunately, because cars were not very popular at that time, Mary Anderson did not gain any profit from this technology, but everyone will always miss the inventor of wiper technology.
Rearview mirror proposer and legendary racing driver --- Dorothy Levitt
Even now, female racing drivers are still rare. But more than a hundred years ago in Britain, there was already a legendary female racing driver. In 1905, 23-year-old Dorothy Levitte drove a De Dion race car, setting a record for the highest consecutive mileage for a female driver at the time, and then in 1906, breaking the record for the highest speed of women, being called "the fastest woman in the world" by the media. At the time, Dorothy Levitt was also regarded as one of the symbols of women's independence, as she successfully entered the male-dominated racing driver field, and countless female fans came from all over to ask her for advice and was enthusiastically sought after.
Dorothy Levitt was a good thinker, and during her own driving, she realized that the situation behind the car was difficult to observe, and when driving at high speed, she could not turn her head back to observe the situation behind the car, so in the 1906 handbook "Women and Cars", she proposed an idea that when there were more vehicles, a mirror could be used to observe the situation behind the car. However, at that time, cars were not popular and the speed was not very fast, so her idea was only used on a small scale.
Later, as the speed of the car increased, the observation of the rear car condition became more and more important, and the inventor officially installed a rearview mirror on the car according to her vision, and used it on the car for hundreds of years.
Inventor of car steering and brake signals--- Florenza Lawrence
Born in Canada, Florence Lawrence was a well-known Hollywood star of the early 20th century and the inventor of the earliest car steering and braking signals.
Florence Lawrence was extremely well-paid and could afford expensive cars, but cars had no signaling devices, and when people turned or braked, they had to reach out of the window and make gestures to remind neighboring vehicles. Florence Lawrence thought that this did not fit her status as a big star, and it was also unsightly to make gestures, so she designed a set of warning mechanisms herself. According to news reports at the time, whenever she needed to turn, she pressed the operating button of the device, and a flag would be raised at the rear of the car to warn the driver behind. The brake signal is a sign with the word "STOP" written on it, which can be linked to the brake system, and when the driver brakes, the sign will rise.
Later, in the idea of mechanical warning device, derived the development of car turn signals, when the vehicle turns or brakes, by opening the corresponding flashing indicator, you can warn the next move of the vehicle, because it is crucial for the safety of the car, it is also used today.
However, due to her relatively wealthy life, Florence Lawrence did not apply for a patent for this car signal device, and the written records left are relatively small, making it difficult for future generations to peek into the full picture of this device, but this does not prevent her from becoming a strange woman in the history of automobile development.
The inventor of the car heater --- Margaret Wilcox
Now we are driving out in the winter, if the car air conditioning can not work properly, I believe everyone is going to scold the mother. But more than a hundred years ago, when cars were not yet air-conditioned, it was a chore for people to drive out in the winter, even if they were wearing thick clothes and their hands and feet were frozen numb.
Margaret Wilcox, who was an engineer at the time, is said to have been driving out in the winter and fell ill when she came back from the freeze. Determined to change that, she invented the first car heater. From today's point of view, Margaret Wilcox's set of car heaters only connects a set of car ventilation ducts to the engine, using the heat of the engine to heat the air in the cab, and cannot control the temperature, which is still quite rudimentary.
However, this device solves the problem of people traveling in winter, so it was quickly applied to mass production cars and became one of the most popular car configurations. At the same time, this device also paved the way for later car air conditioning, and the greatness is self-evident.
After reading the sonorous roses of the automotive industry above, who can say that cars make women go away? In fact, in the process of automobile development, there are many famous women who have made outstanding contributions to the development of automobiles, but they are limited in space, and we are only skimming them today. Finally, let us once again pay high tribute to the women who have made outstanding contributions to the development of automobiles.