page_title: Siegfried Marcus
section_title: Marcus' cars
hierarchical_section_title: Siegfried Marcus / Marcus' cars
context_page_description: Siegfried Samuel Marcus was a German inventor. Marcus was born of Jewish descent in Malchin, in the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. He made several petrol-powered vehicles, the first one in 1864, while living in Vienna, Austria.
context_section_description: Based on the information from existing sources, Marcus' first machine was built on a simple handcart in 1870. but had to be started by lifting the drive wheels off the ground and spinning them. The internal combustion engine was designed for liquid combustibles and made him the first to propel a vehicle by means of petrol. Marcus was not satisfied with this cart and dismantled it.
  In 1883 a patent for a low-voltage ignition magneto was given to Marcus in Germany and a new petrol engine built.
  This design was used for all further engines, including that of the only existing Marcus car from 1888–1889. It was this ignition, in conjunction with the "rotating brush carburettor", that made the engine's design very innovative. By 1886 the German navy was using the engine in its torpedo boats.
  In 1887, Marcus started a co-operation with the Moravian company Märky, Bromovsky & Schulz. They offered two stroke and — after the fall of the Otto-Patent in 1886 — four stroke engines of the Marcus type.
  In 1888-1889 Märky, Bromovsky & Schulz built the car which can still be seen in Vienna's Technical Museum. This car made Marcus well-known all over the world. The car was named a Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
  John Nixon of the London Times in 1938 considered Marcus' development of the motor car to have been experimental, as opposed to Benz who took the concept from experimental to production. Nixon described Marcus' cars as impractical. 12 years later, in 1950, the Times described the car at the Vienna Technical Museum as being built in 1875 and the first petrol-powered road vehicle. A description of its first journey of 7.5 miles from Vienna to Klosterneuberg was included in the article.
caption: Marcus Car of 1888[3]
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