Gottlieb Wilhelm Daimler

Gottlieb Wilhelm Daimler, originally Däumler (17 March 1834, Schorndorf – 6 March 1900, Cannstatt near Stuttgart), was a German engineer, designer and industrialist.

Together with Wilhelm Maybach, he developed one of the first cars and several types of petrol internal combustion engines.

He was the son of a baker in Schorndorf near Stuttgart. After primary school in 1847, he became a gunsmith’s apprentice, making double-barrelled guns. In 1857, he entered Stuttgart Polytechnic. After studying, he travelled and worked in France, England and Belgium.

In 1863, he joined the Bruderhaus factory in Reutlingen, a charitable institution providing work for orphans, disabled people and the poor. There he met the talented nineteen-year-old engineer Wilhelm Maybach, who became his lifelong business partner.

In 1867, he married Emma Kunz, an apothecary’s daughter.

In 1869, he moved to Karlsruhe to work at Maschinenbau-Gesellschaft Karlsruhe AG. Maybach joined him six months later. In 1879, Daimler became a technical director at an internal combustion engine factory in Cologne, led by four-stroke engine inventor N. A. Otto; Maybach became chief designer.

In 1876, Nikolaus Otto invented the four-stroke cycle and patented a four-stroke engine in 1877. Independently of Otto, Daimler and Maybach, Karl Benz in Mannheim developed a two-stroke engine and patented it in 1879.

In 1880, personal disagreements with Otto, who envied Daimler’s university education, led Daimler and Maybach to leave Deutz-AG and work together. In 1882, they moved to Stuttgart, bought a house in suburban Cannstatt and added a laboratory.

In 1890, Daimler founded Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, DMG, to produce small, powerful engines for land, sky and sea. This motto inspired the famous three-pointed star, the modern Mercedes-Benz emblem.

Daimler and Maybach chose a petroleum distillate as fuel. The three products then available were lubricating oil, kerosene and petrol, mainly used for cleaning clothes and sold in pharmacies. They selected the most readily flammable, petrol.

Late in 1885, they built their first engine and also invented a carburettor that year. In November, Daimler built and patented the first motorcycle, the Reitwagen, mounting a small engine on a wooden frame with wooden wheels. Maybach rode it 3 km along the Neckar at 12 km/h.

On 8 March 1886, they brought a carriage home, telling neighbours it was a birthday present for Mrs Daimler. Maybach fitted a 1.5 hp engine and a belt drive to the wheels. This created the first four-wheeled self-propelled carriage, capable of 16 km/h.

In 1887, they also built and tested a boat engine. Marine engines were the firm’s main product for several years.

On 10 August 1888, a balloon propelled by a Daimler internal combustion engine made its first flight.

In 1889, they built their first car, resembling a horseless carriage, and exhibited it in Paris that October. Emma Kunz died the same year.

DMG became a joint-stock company on 28 November 1890. Maybach withdrew on 11 February 1891 and continued independently. The first car was sold in 1892. During the winter of 1892–1893, Daimler suffered a heart attack and went to Italy on medical advice. In Florence, he met Lina Hartmann, a widow twenty-two years younger. They married on 8 July 1893. That year, Daimler left DMG, giving it all his patents from the previous thirty years.

In 1894, Maybach, Daimler and his son Paul built their third engine, the Phoenix. That year, English entrepreneur F. Simms bought a licence for the engine and the Daimler name. His company initially sold DMG cars in England, then began building its own designs under the Daimler name. Thus, Daimler-branded cars are British-made. Until 1950, only Daimler supplied cars to the British royal family. In 1960, Daimler merged with Jaguar.

DMG produced its thousandth engine in 1895.

In 1899, DMG built its first Mercedes car, named after the daughter of company co-owner, diplomat and racing driver Emil Jellinek.

Gottlieb Daimler died on 6 March 1900 in Cannstatt, Stuttgart.