Fact-checking Obama

Last night, the U.S. president said, during an aside about saving the U.S. auto industry, “I believe the nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it.” Huh? Well, here’s a fun fact from none other than the United States’ own Library of Congress: Question: Who invented the automobile? Answer: Karl (Carl) Benz Benz ...

588244_090225_benz5.jpg
588244_090225_benz5.jpg

Last night, the U.S. president said, during an aside about saving the U.S. auto industry, "I believe the nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it."

Last night, the U.S. president said, during an aside about saving the U.S. auto industry, “I believe the nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it.”

Huh?

Well, here’s a fun fact from none other than the United States’ own Library of Congress:

Question: Who invented the automobile?

Answer: Karl (Carl) Benz

Benz was a German whose three-wheeled vehicle, pictured below, boasted an internal combustion engine. He received Germany’s Patent DRP No. 37435 in 1885/1886 for something that looked roughly like this beauty:

 

 

Now, there was an American fellow named George Selden who filed for a U.S. patent for a similar horseless carriage in 1879 and received it in 1895. He never built his invention, though he did collect royalties — in today’s parlance, he would likely be dubbed a “patent troll.”

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