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