A somewhat disorganized workshop in Britain well after the turn of the century. Nevertheless, it can be seen that wheels and their tires play a major role. It's still the early days of the air tire (pneumatics) that made driving more expensive and complicated.

August Horch wrote in his book 'I built cars' about the arrival of the first tires at the Benz company together with a fitter, how tedious and exhausting their assembly on a rim must have been. The mechanic could do it better, but the assembly was still an unusually difficult job:

'When our first cars with the newly invented pneumatics and their proud owners drove down the country roads, our fitters didn't have a quiet hour, either day or night. Telephone and telegraphic calls for help kept coming from all regions, where motorists sat and did not cope with the pneumatics. At that time, our fitters were more on the road in all directions than in the factory.'

You have to know that, for example, hooves were attached to the horn of the horse's feet with nails. They had further strained the already difficult relationship between wagons and cars. Not only these, but also other rubbish on the streets caused breakdowns at relatively short intervals.

Then the very tightly clamped or even bolted tire had to be separated from the rim. Of course, this was firmly connected to the axle, so not removable. The tube was then removed from the tire and patched, with preliminary work such as cleaning and roughening and the corresponding waiting times. Then the tube back into the tire and finally the hardness of the mounting.

The tire was invented in 1894 by the brothers André and Édouard Michelin. Clermont-Ferrand in central France north of the Massif Central remained the group's headquarters, possibly the second largest in the world.

But although the first detachable wheels were invented for GP cars as early as 1906, they did not yet exist for this 1909 Benz-Landaulet. Imagine if you only had to change the tires here. You can see how often this happened by looking at the two spare tires.

The tire was so expensive that you could hardly afford a new one. If it was 'hurt', it was sent for repairs. In addition, it was not until the mid-1920s that high-pressure tires (approx. 5 bar) were replaced by low-pressure tires (approx. 3 bar). From around 1904 it was profiled for better water drainage and blackened and made more durable by the addition of carbon black.