6 lines · 108 words · 0:30 read aloud
Bertha Benz and the First Road Trip
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In 1888, the first long drive in a car was taken by a woman who didn't tell her husband.
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Bertha Benz woke her two teenage sons before dawn and took Karl's new motor car out of the workshop.
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Her goal was her mother's house in Pforzheim, over a hundred kilometers away.
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When the fuel ran low, she bought a cleaning solvent at a pharmacy. It became the first filling station.
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She cleared a blocked fuel line with a hatpin, and had a shoemaker add leather to the brakes.
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She arrived that evening and sent Karl a telegram. The trip showed the world a car could really go somewhere.
