This Duchesse – the term used at the end of the 19th century for a three seater vis-à-vis light car with a concertina roof – became part of the Automobile Museum in 1951 when it was donated by Vittorio Aymone from Seyssel. It cost 6000 Lire to transport the car from Sommariva Bosco (CN) to the museum, which was then situated under the terraces of the Municipal Stadium of Turin.
For many years it was believed to be a Benz. One of the reasons for this was that its impressive single cylinder engine had a distinct and unmistakeable Benz layout: this was a common practice during this era, when many European carmakers used the German manufacturer’s engines. One of the companies to do so was a small and little-known marque from Gaggenau in the Baden region, with a brief but fascinating history which, in later years, would also be connected with Benz itself.
In 1889, the old ironworks and foundry of Gaggenau, a little town in the Southern German region of Baden, was completely restructured by its former director, Theodor Bergmann, who transformed it into the Bergmann Industrial Works, a factory initially dedicated to manufacturing household, kitchen, hunting and sports articles. In 1894, however, Bergmann was convinced by the young engineer Josef Vollmer to start building motor vehicles. After a few initial attempts, a fully fledged motor car factory was soon under way, which began selling cars from 1895 under the name Orient Express, exporting them primarily to France and England. These cars quickly attracted the attention of the public, also through a number of rather original publicity stunts, such as the instance in 1902 in Copenhagen, where – apparently – an Orient successfully drove up a 60 metre tall tower with three people on board.
Around the turn of the century, Bergmann definitively split the car factory off from the rest of his manufacturing operations. This independent new company was named Suddeutsche Automobilfabrik Gaggenau, and from 1904 on, it was dedicated solely to manufacturing heavy goods vehicles. While Orient Express only produced motor cars from 1895 to 1903, its subsequent role as a constructor of trucks was much more significant. When, in 1908, the German military asked Benz to supply a large number of trucks, the Benz factory was already inundated with orders for motor cars. The only feasible solution was for Benz to incorporate an existing brand already specialised in trucks, so it acquired Orient Express.
One of the most interesting technical peculiarities of the car donated to the museum in 1951 is its Bergmann system transmission. This transmission offered three forward speeds and one reverse speed with a system of pulleys. Drive is transmitted from four pulleys mounted on the crankshaft drive to four pulleys mounted on an intermediate shaft by four belts. At any one time, three of these belts are slack, while one is kept tautened by a tensioner roller. This tensioner roller is operated from a lever to the right of the driver, who can adjust the tension as needed to attain the desired gear ratio.
This original system was also rather effective, working so well in fact that the little car was capable of completing the challenging, steep and twisty hill climb from Turin to the Superga Basilica – a route that would shortly afterwards become part of the famous Sassi-Superga race.
The Orient Express brand was commercialised in Italy by Bender & Martiny in Turin, which started out in the late 1800s as first a dealer and then a producer of bicycles, but very soon – on an impulse of the owner Francesco Martiny – broadened its operations to include selling motor cars.
