The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
Benz, Karl
(bnts) (KEY) , 18441929, German engineer, credited with building the first automobile powered by an internal-combustion engine. The car, driven in Mannheim in 1885 and patented in 1886, had three wheels, an electric ignition, and differential gears and was water-cooled. As a result of a merger in 1926, Benzs company became Daimler-Benz AG (now Daimler AG), the manufacturer of the Mercedes-Benz automobile.