Friday 1st July 1898

German-Austrian inventor and automobile pioneer, Siegfried Samuel Marcus (66), died. In the early 1870s he put an internal combustion engine on a simple handcart. This appliance was designed for liquid combustibles and made him the first to propel a vehicle by means of gasoline. Today, this car is well known as “The first Marcus Car”. In 1883 a patent for a low-voltage ignition magneto was given to Marcus in Germany. This design was used for all further engines and, of course, the famous “Second Marcus Car” of 1888–1889. It was this ignition in conjunction with the “rotating brush carburettor” that made the Second Car’s design very innovative. In 1888-1889 Märky, Bromovsky & Schulz built the “Second Marcus Car”, which can still be seen in Vienna’s Technical Museum. This car made Marcus well-known all over the world. This car was named a Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.