Karl Friedrich Benz, sometimes spelled as Carl, (25 November 1844 – 4 April 1929) was a Germanengineer, generally regarded as the inventor of the petrol-powered automobile and pioneering founder of the automobile manufacturer, Mercedes-Benz.[citation needed] engine designer and automobile

Other German contemporaries, Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach working as partners, also worked on similar types of inventions, without knowledge of the work of the other, but Benz patentedinternal combustion engine1879, Benz was granted a patent for his first engine, which he had designed in 1878.[citation needed] his work first and, after that, patented all of the processes that made the feasible for use in automobiles. In

Despite the fact that in German gasoline is called "Benzin", it is not so named after Karl's family name, but after the chemical benzine, whose name is centuries older than Karl Benz himself. The affinity of both nouns are mere coincidence.[citation needed