Robert Bosch grundade i november 1886 en liten fabrik, Werkstätte für Feinmechanik & Elektrotechnik, med två arbetare, där tändapparater för gasmotorer tillverkades på Rotebühlstrasse i Stuttgart – dagens Robert Bosch GmbH. Bosch eftersträvande förbättringar, och investerade de vinster som skapades i bättre maskiner. 1890 införskaffade Bosch en cykel, vid tiden något uppseendeväckande, och kom på så sätt snabbare fram till kunderna i staden.1887 fick han sin första stora framgång då han förbättrade en magnetspole som utvecklats av Siegfried Marcus vid Deutz AG.
In the late 1890s, English engineer Frederick Richard Simms collaborated with the German engineer Robert Bosch, and his staff of Arnold Zähringer, Young Rall, and Gottlob Honold, in developing the first practical high-tension magneto. In 1900, the Bosch magneto ignition was used in the Gottlieb Daimler engines on the Zeppelin.
The first car to use magneto ignition was the 1901 German Mercedes 35 hp racing car, followed by various cars produced by Benz, Mors, Turcat-Mery, and Nesseldorf. Ignition magnetos were soon used on most cars, for both low voltage systems (which used secondary coils to fire the spark plugs) and high voltage magnetos (which fired the spark plug directly, similar to induction coil ignition).Ignition magnetos were largely replaced by ignition coils once batteries became common in cars, since a battery-operated coil can provide a high-voltage spark even at low speeds, making starting easier.
