| Author/Contributor(s): | Mende, Hans-Ulrich |
| Publisher: | Edition Axel Menges |
| Date: | 1/26/2027 |
| Binding: | Hardcover |
| Condition: | NEW |
Benz’s patented motor car of 1886. In 1769, Frenchman Nicolas-
Joseph Cugnot crashed his steam-powered vehicle into a wall on
its maiden voyage. In 1875, Austrian Siegfried Marcus presented
a rudimentary motor-driven vehicle. However, even Benz’s threewheeled
vehicle was still a long way from what we understand today
as an automobile. Numerous developments followed in terms
of wheels, mudguards, axles, springs, bonnets, seats, lamps,
windscreens and roofs. By the turn of the century, the construction
of the automobile as we know it today had been established: with
four wheels of identical size and often already enclosed bodies,
although formally and technically still indebted to carriage construction.
The advent of closed bodies soon led to their previous
materials of wood and fabric being replaced by sheet steel and
glass, which allowed for arbitrary spatial deformations. In addition
to necessary technical considerations, this inspired numerous formal
variations. Initially, these variations mostly concerned the radiator,
followed by the mudguards and windows, and later also the
closed surfaces. With the design of the chassis to increase the
wheelbase, passengers could now sit between the axles and not
above them as before – with the result that the height of the car
could be reduced. This also brought the car roof into focus and,
in addition to new technical requirements, invited various formal
variations. Lighting technology transformed carbide pots into real
headlights. Glass surfaces cautiously ventured out of two-dimensionality
into three-dimensional design. Ironically, it was technology-
based aerodynamics that showed early signs of the modern
car as we know it today.
The book shows many examples of models and their replicas,
although there can be large-time differences between the original
and the replica. Digitalised image research led to extensive and
insightful results. However, it can also be assumed that an idea
was sometimes conceived completely independently and that the
later designer had no knowledge of the earlier idea.