360The 1880s: the motor car, time zones and the Eiffel Tower
In 1886, Karl Benz patented the first practical motor car. The world agreed on Greenwich as the prime meridian, the basis of time zones. Louis Pasteur created a rabies vaccine, Heinrich Hertz proved radio waves exist, and the Eiffel Tower opened in Paris in 1889.
In January 1886, the German engineer Karl Benz patented his Motorwagen, a three-wheeled vehicle powered by a petrol engine. It is widely regarded as the first practical car. In 1888, his wife, Bertha Benz, drove it about 100 kilometres to visit her mother, proving it was useful for real journeys.
Railways needed shared time. At the International Meridian Conference in Washington in 1884, delegates chose the meridian through Greenwich, England, as zero degrees longitude. It became the reference for the world's time zones.
In 1885, Louis Pasteur successfully used a rabies vaccine to treat a boy, Joseph Meister, who had been bitten by a rabid dog. The Pasteur Institute opened in Paris in 1888.
Between 1886 and 1889, Heinrich Hertz produced and detected electromagnetic waves in his laboratory, confirming Maxwell's theory. The unit of frequency, the hertz, is named after him.
In August 1883, the volcano Krakatoa in Indonesia erupted with a sound heard thousands of kilometres away.
The Statue of Liberty was dedicated in New York in 1886, and the Eiffel Tower, built for the 1889 World's Fair in Paris, was then the tallest structure in the world.
- 1883
- Krakatoa erupts
- 1884
- Greenwich chosen as prime meridian
- 1885
- Pasteur's rabies vaccine
- 1886
- Benz patents the motor car
- 1889
- Eiffel Tower opens
Sources: Britannica · Mercedes-Benz Classic · Institut Pasteur.