Thursday 4th April 1929

Karl Friedrich Benz died aged 84. Benz was a German automobile engineer, one of the inventors (with contemporary Gottlieb Daimler) of the petrol-powered automobile, but also credited to have invented among other things, the clutch, the carburettor and the spark plug. Karl Benz was also a great merchant and industrialist, founding the Benz Co., precursor of the Daimler-Benz and later Mercedes-Benz. And before dying he could witness the blooming of automobiles and trucks in the World, used massively in the 1920s decade.