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N0KFQ > TODAY 23.06.16 16:11l 61 Lines 2852 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 97512_N0KFQ
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Subj: Today in History - Jun 23
Path: IW8PGT<HB9CSR<IK2XDE<DB0RES<DB0OVN<DB0GOS<ON0AR<F1OYP<ZL2BAU<N0KFQ
Sent: 160623/1349Z 97512@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.65
1902
"Mercedes" registered as a brand name
On this day in 1902, German automaker
Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) first registers "Mercedes" as
a brand name; the name will gain full legal protection the next
September.
Mechanical engineer Gottlieb Daimler sold his first luxury
gasoline-powered automobile to the sultan of Morocco in 1899; a
year later, he formed DMG in his hometown [or whatever] of
Cannstatt, Germany. Emil Jellinek, a prominent Austrian diplomat
and businessman who was extremely enthusiastic about the
development of the automobile, ordered a car from Daimler in
1897. The carmaker delivered a six-horsepower vehicle with a
two-cylinder engine, but it was too slow for Jellinek; to replace
it, he ordered two of a faster model-the four-cylinder Daimler
Phoenix. Soon, Jellinek began to sell Daimler cars to high
society customers and to drive them in racing events, including
Nice Week on the French Riviera, in 1899. He entered these races
using the pseudonym "Mercedes," the name of his elder daughter.
In April 1900, Jellinek signed an agreement with DMG to
distribute and sell a new line of four-cylinder vehicles. He
suggested they call the car Mercedes, feeling that the non-German
name might sell better in France. On December 22, 1900, DMG
delivered the first Mercedes to Jellinek. Designed by Wilhelm
Maybach, chief engineer for DMG, the 35-horsepower vehicle
featured a pressed-steel chassis (or frame), honeycomb radiator,
mechanical intake valves and an improved gearbox; it could
achieve a speed of 53 mph. For this combination of attributes,
the 1901 Mercedes is considered to have been the first truly
modern automobile.
At Nice Week in March 1901, Mercedes race cars nearly swept the
field, and orders began pouring into DMG's Cannstatt factory.
"Mercedes" was registered as a brand name on June 22, 1902, and
legally protected the following September 26. In June 1903, Emil
Jellinek obtained permission to take the name Jellinek-Mercedes,
observing that it was "probably the first time that a father has
borne the name of his daughter."
The famous Mercedes symbol, a three-point star, was registered as
a trademark in 1909 and used on all Mercedes vehicles from 1910
onward. It had its origins in a story that Paul and Adolf
Daimler, sons of Gottlieb Daimler and senior executives at DMG,
remembered about their father, who died in 1900. On a postcard
with a picture of Cologne and Deutz, where he was working at the
time in the Deutz engine factory, the elder Daimler had drawn a
star over the house where he was living. In the card's message,
he told his wife the star represented the prosperity that would
shine on them in the future, when he would have his own factory.
73 - K.O., n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
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