Hildebrand and Wolfmüller

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Hildebrand & Wolfmüller
ZweiRadMuseumNSU Hildebrand Wolfmueller.JPG
Hildebrand & Wolfmüller from 1894
Gasoline motorcycle
Manufacturer Hildebrand & Wolfmüller
Production period 1894 to 1895
class motorcycle
Motor data
Four-stroke engine , water-cooled two-cylinder tandem engine, drop lubrication, surface carburetor with a tank volume of 6.5 liters, glow tube ignition
Displacement  (cm³) 1488/1530 cm³
bore: 90 mm
stroke: 117/120 mm compression: 3: 1, fuel: light petrol with a boiling point of 30-35 degrees
Power  (kW / PS ) 2.5 HP at 240 min -1
Top speed (  km / h) 40 km / h
(record 72 km / h)
transmission Direct drive
drive Push rods
Brakes front: block brake
rear: floor brake (first series models)
Wheelbase  (mm) 1,300
Empty weight  (kg) 84 kg

The Hildebrand & Wolfmüller from 1894 was the world's first mass-produced motorcycle ; the Daimler riding car from 1885 was a test vehicle for the engine and remained a one-off.

prehistory

In 1887 the enthusiastic cyclist Heinrich Hildebrand (1855–1928) founded the magazine Radfahr-Chronik ; In 1889, together with his brother Wilhelm, he constructed a steam wheel that did not produce the success that Hildebrand had hoped for. The model was further developed and in 1893 it was possible to find a buyer in Paris for the only copy. On November 14, 1896, he took part in the “Emancipation Run” under the starting number 18 after the Red Flag Act was repealed . The steam wheel is now in England, where it can be viewed in the London Science Museum .

In 1892 Hildebrand commissioned the designer Alois Wolfmüller to develop a motorcycle with a gasoline engine according to Daimler. Wolfmüller, who worked for Dürkopp in Bielefeld and Carl Benz in Mannheim, among others , hired his childhood friend and engineer Hans Geisenhof as well as Ludwig Rüb and Johann Strömel as employees.

Rear hub with cam disk and "piston return spring" (inclusion of a replica)

development

At the end of 1893, the development was completed and a first prototype for test drives was built. The prototype, which is now in the possession of the Deutsches Museum , is said to have been built for 430  gold marks (equivalent to around 3,000 euros today  ). The first attempts, still with a two-stroke tandem engine, resulted in injuries. The mechanic Strömel forgot to secure the connecting bolt with a split pin. The piston that fell out knocked off his arm.

The first test run started on January 10, 1894, and the first test drives took place on January 18 and 19, 1894 in Bamberg , where Wolfmüller and Geisenhof had their workshop. “The motorcycle ran smoothly, but backwards”. At the end of January 1894, the motorcycle under the driver Geisenhof survived a continuous drive of "100 laps on Landsberger Allee" in Munich.

In the patent dated January 20, 1894 (DRP 78553) the two-wheeler with petroleum is referred to as a "motorcycle". The patent was granted for the engineers Alois Wolfmüller and Hans Geisenhof. The motorcycle factory began operations on March 1, 1894 in Munich , Colosseumstrasse 1.

technology

The water-cooled engine was housed in a quadruple tubular frame, the design of which was later adopted by Alfred Angas Scott for his first model 3 3/4 . The front spoked wheel with Veith tubular tires had a diameter of 26 inches, the rear wheel consisted of a 22-inch metal flywheel whose Veith tubular tires were equipped with metal rivets as a profile. The exhaust valves (12.7 mm in diameter) were controlled by a cam disk attached to the rear wheel hub, which operated the rocker arm via long bumpers and reversing hook levers; This means that the cam disk rotates at full crankshaft speed. The inlet valves were designed as sniffer valves . The engine's connecting rods acted directly on the rear wheel, which acts as a crankshaft . Adjustable rubber bands brought the connecting rods back. Although it is mostly claimed that there is no piston retraction spring as a component in piston engines, the rubber bands from Hildebrand & Wolfmüller had this function. The air filter for the air supply (intake and return pipe) of the glow tube ignition burner was located behind the front enamel shield . Behind it was the regulating valve for the surface carburetor, which had check screens and floats.

Front enamel shield (in front of the steering head)

The rear fender served as a water tank for the thermosiphon cooling , the oil container was located in the front frame tubes, a design detail that only found its way back into motorcycle technology 50 years later. A standard bicycle block brake was installed on the front wheel , the rear wheel was unbraked. From today's point of view, an emergency brake using a spur as a brake anchor was astonishing. The advertising brochure from 1894 states:

"A new type of floor brake is attached under the twin cylinder, which is activated by means of the feet after leaving the foot rest. This brake engages directly on the ground in the track of the two wheels. "

To start, the "candle" of the glow tube ignition had to be preheated, then the motorcycle was pushed and the fuel supply was interrupted with a lever on the right end of the handlebar to stop.

distribution

Since Hildebrand & Wolfmüller had up to five workshops produced, which numbered their parts separately, a specific number of motorcycles built is not known. Rauck specifies between 800 and 2000 units, Spies sees the number of 930 units built too high, and Alois Wolfmüller gave a number from 350 to 400 in the ADAC Motorwelt in 1929 . Eight to ten motorcycles are said to have left the factory every day in the first year. At its peak, the company had 850 workers and 50 salaried employees in four branch plants. Licenses were given to France to Duncan & Suberbie & Cie in Croissy - there Hildebrand & Wolfmüller was offered under the name Pétrolette - there were factory representatives across Europe. The prices were between 850 and 1200  gold marks (corresponds to between 6,000 and 9,000 euros today  ). When ordering, a deposit of 300 gold marks had to be made; the waiting time until delivery was three months.

Technical description of Hildebrand & Wolfmüller
Hildebrand & Wolfmüller postage stamp

Driving reports

Customers (who had to complete a training course) complained about the jerky engine running at low speeds, the flammable glow tube ignition and the inadequate surface carburetor, which felt most comfortable in the warm season.

HO Duncan: “There was something supernatural about the way she jumped forward, and who could tell me if she might not run away like a horse at any moment. […] I thought of turning back, but, to tell the truth, I couldn't turn. [...] all I could do was steer straight ahead. "
Oscar Koch: “During trips that I have made myself, the engine not only struck on very slight inclines, but it sometimes even stopped on the flat. The main reason for the failure was probably that the power of the engine was not transmitted by belts, but by cranks and connecting rods to the rear wheel of the vehicle, with the engine lacking any centrifugal mass, so that its pistons were tightened by rubber bands, which were taut during the explosion. had to be withdrawn. The best power of the motor was therefore wasted in tensioning these rubber bands, which in most cases could not even lead the cranks over the dead point ”.

Spies writes: "The motorcycle was interesting as a toy, but unsuitable as an everyday vehicle".

Races

For advertising purposes Hildebrand and Wolfmüller took part in at least two races in 1895 . On May 18, 1895, Giovanni Battista Ceirano and Alois Wolfmüller started the Esperimento di corsa di veicoli automotori , which led from Turin to Asti and back. This race is considered to be the first ever Italian automobile race. Behind Simone Federmann , who on a Daimler - automobile with an average speed won 15.5 km / h Ceirano finished second, Wolf Müller was third. Of the five starters, only these three reached the finish.

Only a few weeks later, however, in the Paris – Bordeaux – Paris race, the machine's weaknesses became glaring and both pilots had to give up around the middle of the race.

End of production

Decisive for the decline of the motorcycle factory and the first mass-produced motorcycle were the technical inadequacies and ultimately the competition from France. De Dion-Bouton's motorcycles were more advanced; Hildebrand & Wolfmüller, with its rigid drive, was not capable of development due to its design. Production ended in October 1895 and bankruptcy proceedings began on November 2, 1895. The French licensee also filed for bankruptcy in late 1895. Hildebrand managed to postpone bankruptcy until the end of 1897. Wolfmüller left the company on May 19, 1897, and Hildebrand applied for another patent on July 27, 1897. Wolfmüller then designed a new model with an upright single-cylinder engine, shaft drive and coupling. The patent model dated October 5, 1899, registered through his father, was never built.

Preserved motorcycles

Eight Hildebrand & Wolfmüller motorcycles have been preserved in Germany, plus the prototype from 1893. Hildebrand & Wolfmüller motorcycles are on display in the German Museum in Munich , in the German Two-Wheeler and NSU Museum in Neckarsulm , in the motorcycle museum at Augustusburg Castle and in the PS. SPEICHER to visit in Einbeck . On the occasion of the "International Classic MotorCycle Show" in Stafford on April 25, 2010, the Bonhams auction house auctioned an originally preserved Hildebrand & Wolfmüller , which is said to have last run around 1930. The auction achieved 86,200  GBP (then about 102,550  euros ). A year later, a restored machine was auctioned at Bonhams in Las Vegas . This achieved a sales price of 161,000  USD (then about 123,850 euros).

Replicas

The brothers Thomas and Michael Leibfritz built the Hildebrand & Wolfmüller in small numbers. Another small series was launched by Mike Kron.

Web links

Commons : Hildebrand and Wolfmüller  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ Due to the different information in the literature on the stroke, different information on the displacement results.
  2. ↑ Taking the wheel circumference into account, the nominal speed of the motor results in a speed of 28.7 to 30.1 km / h.
  3. ↑ The Brunswick Hildebrand & Wolfmüller. The bearing blocks of the rear axle could be moved 40 mm in the cylinder plane.
  4. ↑ Only the cylinders but not the cylinder head

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Jan Spies: The Braunschweiger Hildebrand & Wolfmüller. Publications from the Städtisches Museum Braunschweig. Volume 57, Braunschweig 1988, p. 9 ff.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Max JB Rauck: The production motorcycle was 90 years old. In: deutsches-museum.de (PDF; 12.2 MB) Kultur & Technik, issue 1986, p. 85 ff (accessed on January 14, 2012).
  3. ^ A b c d Karl Reese: Motorcycles from Munich . Johann Kleine Vennekate, Lemgo, 1st edition 2005, ISBN 3-935517-17-3 , pp. 73 ff.
  4. ↑ Peter Schneider: The two-wheeler through the ages. German Two-Wheeler Museum Neckarsulm. 1980, p. 25.
  5. ^ Steam motor cycle. Science Museum Group, accessed on December 2, 2018 (English): “Made: 1889 in Munich. Maker: Heinrich and Wilhelm Hildebrand "
  6. ↑ a b c Werner Schwipps: Alois Wolfmüller. Inventor and flight technician. Aviatic Verlag, Planegg, 1st edition, 1991, ISBN 3-925505-16-4 , p. 31 ff.
  7. ↑ Encyclopedia of the Motorcycle. Instituto Geografico De Agostini, 1996. ISBN 3-86047-142-2 , p. 239.
  8. ↑ motorradonline.de of February 8, 2008 Hildebrand & Wolfmüller replica (accessed on February 20, 2012).
  9. ↑ Oscar Koch: The current state of motorcycles. In: Polytechnisches Journal . 323, 1908, pp. 312-314.
  10. ^ A b c IN THE CURRENT FAMILY OWNERSHIP SINCE THE LATE 1960S, c. 1894/1895 HILDEBRAND & WOLFMÜLLER, Engine no. 47. In: Bonhams . www.bonhams.com, January 6, 2011, accessed May 19, 2020 .
  11. ↑ May 18 Torino, Villanova d'Asti, Villafranca Asti, Asti, Torino - 93 km. racecarstory.netsons.org, January 6, 2011, accessed May 19, 2020 .
  12. ^ The Find Of The Decade. One Of The First Ever Motorbikes Up For Auction At Bonhams. Bonhams, 2010, archived from the original on July 26, 2010 ; accessed on January 29, 2018 (English): "Bonhams is delighted to feature the ultimate motorcycle 'Barn Find' at The International Classic MotorCycle Show, Stafford on April 25th 2010."
  13. ↑ Thomas and Michael Leibfritz: replica "Hildebrand & Wolfmüller" , accessed on March 19, 2009.
  14. ↑ motorrad-fuchs.com (accessed on January 14, 2012).
  15. ↑ motorradonline.de of February 8, 2008 Hildebrand & Wolfmüller replica (accessed on February 20, 2012).