Ferdinand Porsche， engineering genitts， and the very beginnings of the legend
created in the twentieth Century
i P=ri8 Exhil:i~ion-kohner-
Firs~ racing Pots=he\"
THEY called it the exhibition of the century， and it far excelled its predecessors of 1878
and 1879; pavilions were bigger， more visitors came， more countries were represented.
and more specialized groups of exhibits were shown. Without doubt， science and
~engineering were the focal points of this Paris exhibition in the year 1900. The Eiffel
Tower， built in 1889， stood proudly above it all， a powerful symbol of technical progress.
This time the entire exhibition was lit by the new-fangled electric arc-lights and there was
even an Electricity palace . All branches of engineering were on show: rapid-firing guns
and machine guns， multi-spindle lathes， enormous cranes， the Edison X-ray camera，
electric conveyors， a 2，500hp steam engine by Borsig， an 18 ft high stationary engine by
Lanz， and， of course， there were also motor-cars.
In 1894 the first motor race had taken place. It was a long-distance run from Paris to
. Rouen， and a Daimler-engined car had been declared the winner. Then came a race from
Paris to Bordeaux. Through these events the motor vehicle became popular and the
demands made by these races advanced the early designs. In those days talk was only
about the French and German makes. Germany had seen the pr<>duction of the first cars，
while France staged the first competitions; other nations only started to produce motor
vehicles worthy of competition at the turn of the century.
In Austria the first self-propelled vehicle， which could be properly called a motor-car
had been built in 1875. This， the Marcus car， had actually been driven a short distance on
the roact， but to lVlarcus fell a typical inventor s fate， he was not in a position to improve
his invention nor to popularize it to the extent of putting it into production. The first
firm in Austria to take up car production in a proper commercial way was Jacob Lohner
& Co.
This company had been founded in 1891 and was one of the oldest coach-builders in
Austria. They built beautiful horse-drawn carriages some of which were vet3， luxurious，
and Jacob Lohner became K.u.K. Hofkutschenhauer _ in other words， Coach-builder to
his Imperial Majesty On 1st December 1896 Lohner decided to build motor-cars in
emulation of such gre~t ones as Dalmler， Benz， and Panhard of France. Yet Lohner
wanted to plough his OWn furrow; he thought that electric power would be preferable to
the internal comhustion engine. As supplier to the Imperial Court， he considered that it
would he necessary to build nmtor-cars acceptable at Court and worthy of being driven to
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