Legends
SIEGFRIED MARCUS - THE ECCENTRIC GENIUS...
Even the 1946
edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica spells his name wrong. It called
him Narkus. His works hardly were recognized and most of them went
unnoticed. His expertise spread in chemistry, electricity and
dentistry. A genius, excited scientist and a frenzy engineer with tons
of excitement bubbling within all the time, who at times loved pulling
his tooth for the sake of curiosity. He worked furiously in different
fields. An erratic engineer who seldom finished his projects once he
was convinced they could work. He was a restless dabbler who often
struggled to achieve new breakthroughs and experiment new ideas.
Siegfried Marcus was born in 1831, in Malchin, Germany. At the age of
12 he was apprenticed to a machinist and at the age of 17 joined
Siemens and Halske firm, where he invented an electric relay system for
telegraphy. He worked with Siemens and Halske till he was 20. At the
age of 20 he left Siemens and later moved to Vienna where he worked for
a court mechanic. In 1860 he rented a few rooms in Mariahilferstrasse,
Vienna and set up his own engineering laboratory where he worked on his
projects. He was fascinated by electric lighting and experimented with
ignited benzene vapor to make beautiful light. There was no beautiful
light but a mighty explosion that gave him another idea of burning
benzene vapor in the cylinder that might make an engine run. He
designed a 2-stroke engine and installed it in a handcart. This
'vehicle' had no clutch and the rear wheels had to be held by hand
while cranking the engine and later dropped down so that it can move.
Well it did move, though the cart never had clutch and brakes. Once
satisfied that his idea can work, he abandoned it. Well what sense does
it make to import benzene at 3 marks a liter from Germany just to run a
cart.
Later Marcus turned to other projects and even
prospered a little. During this time he tutored the Austrian Crown
prince in science and also installed an electric bell in the palace.In
1874, 9 years after his last tenure with self propelled carts, he
turned his attention to motorcars again. This time he built 3 cars. One
by himself in his shop and the other two under his direction. The car
was single cylinder, 4 stroke and 1570 cc of volume developing 3/4hp,
which could be driven at 4 miles an hour. The chassis was wooden, semi
elliptic springs, a steering wheel, iron tires and a steel cone clutch
with single speed transmission.
Marcus called it
Strassenwagen. Anyone, but Marcus would have gone ahead with the new
invention to build more such cars. But Marcus who was already bored
with the car showed little interest to continue with the project. Now
he wanted to move on to better and more exciting gadgets.
The Royal
Academy Of Sciences recognized him, though grudgingly and the Viennese
put up his statue in 1924.The Technisches Museum exhibited his car and
even had a booklet available about the inventor. Though Marcus drifted
from the idea of the motorcar, Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz nourished
the idea, which from them grew the giant motor industry of the day.
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