Gottlieb Daimler

Biography

Gottlieb Wilhelm Daimler was born in Schorndorf, Württemberg, on 17 March 1834. The partnership that defined his work was with Wilhelm Maybach: on 16 December 1883 the two patented their first engine to run on ligroin, a light petroleum spirit, and in 1885 they built the upright unit nicknamed the 'grandfather clock'.

They put that engine into anything that could move. In November 1885 it powered the Reitwagen, the first motorcycle with an internal combustion engine; on 8 March 1886 a converted stagecoach fitted with it reached 16 km/h, and the same year it drove the motorboat Neckar. The Stahlradwagen shown in Paris in October 1889 was their first car designed from scratch rather than adapted from a horse-drawn carriage.

Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) was founded on 28 November 1890 and sold its first car in 1892, but disputes with other shareholders led Daimler to resign in 1893. In 1896 DMG won a lawsuit against Benz & Cie. over his 1883 hot-tube ignition patent. Gottlieb Daimler died in Cannstatt on 6 March 1900; in 1926 his company and Benz & Cie. merged into Daimler-Benz.