mint stamps: Benz, 1886; Daimler, 1886 (DE)

Stamps issue by Portuguese Post Office on the occasion of the 100 years of the automobile. 
Date of issue: 1986.04.10

Pioneers of the Automobile (1886): Benz’s three wheels “Patent-Motorwagen” and Daimler’s four wheels carriage

Few inventions have had as enduring an influence on the world's development as the invention of the automobile.

The pioneers of automobile manufacture towards the end of the 19th century were Gottlieb Daimler (1834-1900) and Carl Benz (1844-1929).

On January 29, 1886, Benz applied for a patent for his “vehicle powered by a gas engine.” The patent – number 37435 – may be regarded as the birth certificate of the automobile. In July 1886 the newspapers reported on the first public outing of the three-wheeled Benz Patent Motor Car, model no. 1.
The "Velocipede" originated in 1886 can be regarded as the world's first automobile, despite being limited to three wheels (*).

In the same year, just 100 kilometers away Daimler presented his motor carriage, considered the world's first four-wheeled automobile. Essentially, this automobile is a light coach which a modified and more powerful version of Daimler’s engine.

However, several years lay between the invention of the automobile and its economic exploitation.

The Benz Velo from 1894 was the world's first series-produced automobile.

Source: https://www.daimler.com/company/tradition/company-history/1886-1920.html

 (*)  In fact  Nicholas-Joseph Cugnot (1725-1804), French Army Captain,  built, at the time of Louis XIV, the first working self-propelled mechanical vehicle, indeed the world's first automobile:  Cugnot’s  “fardier à vapeur”.

RFS