As of: March 10, 2024, 9:04 p.m
By: Julian Baumann
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As is well known, the car was invented in Baden-Württemberg, but another invention from the state helped the means of transport achieve its worldwide breakthrough.
Stuttgart - The history of the automobile is linked to a small selection of pioneers from Baden-Württemberg.
Gottlieb Daimler
and
Wilhelm Maybach
developed the “grandfather clock” in 1885, the world’s first high-speed gasoline engine.
They tested this in the world's first motorcycle and in a motorized boat.
A year later ,
Carl Benz
applied for a patent for his motor car, which is considered the first car in the world.
A name that cannot be missed in further development is
Robert Bosch
.
In 1886, Robert Bosch founded a workshop for precision mechanics and electrical engineering in Stuttgart, from which today's global corporation
Bosch
emerged, one of the largest companies in Baden-Württemberg.
One of Bosch's most important inventions is a
high-voltage magneto
with a
spark plug
.
For the first time, this ensured reliable ignition of the gasoline-air mixture in combustion engines and thus helped the car achieve a breakthrough.
Although Bosch is now also focusing on e-mobility and other alternative drives, the world's largest automotive supplier still produces spark plugs to this day.
In 1902, Bosch applied for a patent for the magneto ignition and delivered the first spark plug to Daimler
The “grandfather clock” developed by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach was registered for patent in 1883 as a “gas engine with hot tube ignition”.
The glow tube ignition was the first variant of ignition in a gasoline engine, which was used until the beginning of the 20th century.
This very fault-prone variant was replaced by the low-voltage magneto ignition, which in turn was the basis for the high-voltage magneto ignition from Bosch.
Incidentally, this was not developed by Robert Bosch himself, but on his behalf by the engineer
Gottlob Honold
, the head of the Robert Bosch workshop for precision mechanics and electrical engineering.
The high-voltage magneto with spark plug from Bosch was patented in 1902.
© Robert Bosch GmbH
The invention of today's spark plug cannot be attributed directly to Robert Bosch the person, but to the company.
In 1902, they filed a patent for the high-voltage magneto with spark plug.
In the same year, Bosch delivered the first spark plug to
Daimler Motorenwerke , which merged with
Benz & Cie
in 1926
to form today's
Mercedes Group
.
The further development of the spark plug quickly became a success for Bosch and played a significant role in the Stuttgart technology group becoming the largest automotive supplier in the world.
The spark plug helped the car achieve a breakthrough and made Bosch the largest automotive supplier in the world.
© Robert Bosch GmbH
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As Bosch explains in an edition of the history series “History Blog” on its website, the company manufactured fewer than 50,000 of the low-voltage magnetos in the early years between 1897 and 1902.
Since the patent was filed in 1902, production had increased significantly, so that by 1912 the company had already produced around a million spark plugs.
In 1914, Bosch founded its first production plant for its spark plugs in the
Feuerbach
district of Stuttgart , which was followed by another in Bamberg in 1939.
In 1914, Bosch founded its first spark plug production plant at its headquarters in Stuttgart.
© Robert Bosch GmbH
Spark plug helped Bosch achieve another economic boom after the Second World War
In another issue of the “History Blog,” Bosch describes how the spark plugs once again contributed to the company’s upswing just a few years later.
The city of Stuttgart was badly damaged in the Second World War;
The main Bosch factory was in ruins and was painstakingly rebuilt by the remaining employees.
After Stuttgart finally became part of the US occupation zone, the Army moved into the city with a large fleet of vehicles.
However, the vehicles soon needed new spark plugs and batteries, which is why Bosch's production restrictions were quickly lifted.
After the Second World War, the spark plug helped Bosch achieve renewed economic growth.
© IMAGO/Hoffmann
In the years and decades that followed, Bosch spark plugs became one of the group's most important products.
In 1968, Bosch produced the 1 billionth spark plug, and in 2012 the 11 billionth was produced.
However, like Mahle and ZF, Bosch is in the middle of the transformation to e-mobility.
Since traditional spark plugs are not required in
electric cars
, the future of this groundbreaking development is uncertain.