NERDS ABROAD Germany 2012 – Mercedes Benz Museum

,

Mercedes Benz honeycomb radiator design 
The internal combustion engine inherently creates tons of heat and the original designs could boil off a gallon of water in less than an hour.  It was obviously not efficient or practical to lug that much weight around, so Karl Benz created a coiled pipe system that worked like heat sinks to cool the water.  Though this did solve the majority of the problem, it was Maybach who took cooling to the next level with his honeycomb design.  It incorporated 8,000 6mm square tubes soldered together – which used to be soldered by hand!  Not only did the system allow for a significant reduction in the amount of water needed, it paved the way for the development of much more powerful engines.

Mercedes Benz honeycomb radiator system 

 

Mercedes Benz in car tool kit 
We take for granted the every day reliability of today's cars.  In the car's infancy, all owners needed to be very familiar with their machines as they could break down at any moment.  This is just part of the standard issue tool kit that came with every car.

 

Airplane Engine Development  
Much like every other German company during the war, Daimler and Benz began developing aero engines and became the German Reich's leading manufacturers.  The airplane engine programs stopped after the first World War, but started back up in the 30's.  By that time the two companies had merged to form Daimler-Benz AG.  In 1942 they completely switched their operations to only building aero engines and aircraft components – a move that made them prime targets for Allied bombing raids. 

 

Mercedes Benz bicycle 
After Germany lost the second World War the Treaty of Versailles forced the discontinuation of all marine and aero engine manufacturing.  In order to get through those horrible economic post war times, and become less dependent on automobile sales, they started selling bicycles.  In just 3 years the newly formed subsidiary companies sold over 25,000 units. 

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*
*