Gottlieb Daimler

Gottlieb Wilhelm Daimler (German pronunciation:

[tlip daml]; 17 March 1834 6 March 1900[1] )
was an engineer, industrial designer and industrialist born
in Schorndorf (Kingdom of Wrttemberg, a federal state
of the German Confederation), in what is now Germany.
He was a pioneer of internal-combustion engines and
automobile development. He invented the high-speed
petrol engine.

day morning classes. In 1853, Daimler, with Steinbeis

assistance, got work at the factory college, F. Roll und
Schwilque(R&S) in Grafenstaden, so-called because its
manager, Friedrich Messmer, had been an instructor at
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.[3] Daimler performed
well, and when Roll und Schwilque began making railway locomotives in 1856, Daimler, then 22, was named
foreman.[3]

Daimler and his lifelong business partner Wilhelm Maybach were two inventors whose goal was to create small,
high-speed engines to be mounted in any kind of locomotion device. In 1885 they designed a precursor of
the modern petrol (gasoline) engine which they subsequently tted to a two-wheeler, the rst internal combustion motorcycle and, in the next year, to a stagecoach, and
a boat. Daimler called it the grandfather clock engine
(Standuhr) because of its resemblance to a large pendulum clock.

Instead of staying, Daimler took two years at Stuttgarts

Polytechnic Institute to hone his skills, gaining in-depth
grasp of steam locomotives, as well as a profound conviction steam was destined to be superseded.[3] He conceived small, cheap, simple engines for light industrial
use, possibly inspired by the newly developed gas engines
of that era.[3]
In 1861, he resigned from R&S, visiting Paris, then went
on to England, working with the countrys top engineering rms, becoming knowledgeable with machine tools.
He spent from autumn 1861 to summer 1863 in England, then regarded as the motherland of technology,[4]
at Beyer, Peacock and Company of Gorton, Manchester.
Beyer was from Saxony.[5] While in London, he visited
the 1862 International Exhibition, where one of the exhibits was a steam carriage.[3] These carriages did not evidently inspire him, however, for his wish was to produce
machine tools and woodworking machinery.[3]

In 1890, they founded Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft

(DMG, in EnglishDaimler Motors Corporation). They
sold their rst automobile in 1892. Daimler fell ill and
took a break from the business. Upon his return he experienced diculty with the other stockholders that led
to his resignation in 1893. This was reversed in 1894.
Maybach resigned at the same time, and also returned.
In 1900 Daimler died and Wilhelm Maybach quit DMG
in 1907. In 1924, the DMG management signed a long
term co-operation agreement with Karl Benz's Benz &
Cie., and in 1926 the two companies merged to become
Daimler-Benz AG, which is now part of Daimler AG.

Daimler went to work for Maschinenfabrik Daniel Straub,

Geislingen an der Steige, where he designed tools, mills,
and turbines. In 1863, he joined the Bruderhaus Reutlingen, a Christian Socialist toolmaker, as inspector and
later executive.While there, he met Wilhelm Maybach,
then a 15-year-old orphan.[6] Thanks to Daimlers organizational skills, the factory managed to show a prot,
but he quit in frustration in 1869, joining Maschinenbau
Gesellschaft Karlsruhe in July.[6]

Early life: 18341852

Gottlieb Wilhelm Daimler was the son of a baker named

Johannes Dumler (Daimler) and his wife Frederika,
from the town of Schorndorf near Stuttgart, Wrttemberg. By the age of 13 (1847), he had completed six years
of primary studies in Lateinschule and became interested
in engineering. The next year, he began an apprenticeship
with a carbine maker, Raithel.[2] He graduated in 1852,
passing the craft test with a pair of engraved doublebarreled pistols.[3] The same year, at eighteen, Daimler
decided to take up mechanical engineering, abandoning
gun smithing,[3] and left his hometown.

When in 1872 Otto und Langen reorganized as

Gasmotoren-Fabrik Deutz, management picked Daimler
as factory manager, bypassing even Otto, and Daimler
joined the company in August, taking Maybach with him
as chief designer.[6]

While Daimler managed to improve production, the

weakness in the Ottos vertical piston design, coupled
to Daimlers stubborn insistence on atmospheric engines,
led the company to an impasse.[6] Neither Otto nor Daimler would give way, and when Daimler was oered the
choice of founding a Deutz branch in St. Petersburg or reSigning up at Stuttgarts School for Advanced Training
signing, he resigned to set up shop in Cannstatt (nanced
in the Industrial Arts, under the tutelage of Ferdinand
by savings and shares in Deutz),[7] where he was shortly
Steinbeis. Daimler was studious, even taking extra Sun1

THE GRANDFATHER CLOCK ENGINE (1885)

joined by Maybach.[6]
At Cannstatt, Daimler and the more creative thinking
Maybach[6] devised their engine. At Daimlers insistence, it eliminated the clumsy, complicated slide-valve
ignition,[8] in favor of a hot tube system invented by
Leo Funk, since Daimler also distrusted electricity.[8] It
took considerable eort and experimentation, but eventually, the duo perfected a .5 hp (0.37 kW; 0.51 PS)
vertical single, which was tted in the Reitwagen, a
purpose-built two-wheeler chassis with two spring-loaded
stabilizerss.[8] When this proved the engine capable of
driving a vehicle, Daimler devised a 1.1 hp (0.82 kW;
1.1 PS) single and ordered a Wimp und Soehne fourseater phaeton to house it.[8] Daimlers engine was installed by Maschinenfabrik Esslingen and drove the rear
wheels through a dual-ratio belt drive.[8]

The Otto four-stroke engine

(1876)

In 1872 (at age 38), Daimler and Maybach moved to work

at the worlds largest manufacturer of stationary engines
at the time, the Deutz-AG-Gasmotorenfabrik in Cologne.
It was half-owned by Nikolaus Otto, who was looking for
a new technical director. As directors, both Daimler and
Otto focused on gas-engine development while Maybach
was chief designer.

Daimlers summer house (Cannstatt)

in southern Germany, purchasing a cottage in Cannstatts

Taubenheimstrasse, with 75,000 goldmarks from the
compensation from Deutz-AG. In the garden, they added
a brick extension to the roomy glass-fronted summer
house and this became their workshop. Their activities
alarmed the neighbors who reported them to the police
as suspected counterfeiters. The police obtained a key
from the gardener and raided the house in their absence,
but found only engines.
Daimler and Maybach spent long hours debating how best
to fuel Ottos four-stroke design, and turned to a byproduct of petroleum. The main distillates of petroleum at
the time were lubricating oil, kerosene (burned as lamp
fuel), and benzine, which up to then was used mainly as
a cleaner and was sold in pharmacies.

In 1876, Otto invented the four-stroke cycle, also known

as the Otto Cycle, a system characterized by four piston 4 The grandfather clock engine
strokes (intake, compression, power, and exhaust). Otto
(1885)
intended that his invention would replace the steam engines predominant in those years, even though his engine was still primitive and inecient. Ottos engine was In late 1885, Daimler and Maybach developed the rst of
patented in 1877, but the patent was soon challenged and their petrol engines, which featured:
overturned. Unbeknownst to Otto, Daimler, and Maybach, in Mannheim during 1878, Karl Benz was concen a single horizontal cylinder of 264 cc (16 cu in)[9]
trating all his eorts on creating a reliable two-stroke gas
(58100 mm, 2.283.94 in)[9]
engine based on the same principle. Benz nished his en air cooling
gine on 31 December 1878, and was granted a patent for
his engine in 1879.
large cast iron ywheel
Meanwhile, serious personal dierences arose between
Daimler and Otto, reportedly with Otto being jealous
surface carburetor[10]
of Daimler, because of his university background and
knowledge. Daimler was red in 1880, receiving 112,000
hot tube ignition system (patent 28022)
goldmarks in Deutz-AG shares in compensation for the
cam operated exhaust valves, allowing high speed
patents of both Daimler and Maybach. Maybach resigned
operation
later.
0.5 hp (370 W)[9]

Daimler Motors: small, highspeed engines (1882)

After leaving Deutz-AG, Daimler and Maybach started

to work together. In 1882, they moved back to Stuttgart

600 rpm running speed, beating previous engines,

which typically ran at about 120 to 180 rpm
weight of around 50 kg (110 lb)[9]
height of 76 cm (30 in)[9]

3
In 1885, they created a carburetor which mixed gasoline
with air allowing its use as fuel. In the same year Daimler
and Maybach assembled a larger version of their engine,
still relatively compact, but now with a vertical cylinder
of 100 cc displacement and an output of 1 hp at 600 rpm
(patent DRP-28-022: non-cooled, heat insulated engine
with unregulated hot-tube ignition). It was baptized the
Standuhr (grandfather clock), because Daimler thought
it resembled an old pendulum clock.

km/h; 6.9 mph). The boat was called Neckar after the river where it was tested. (patent DRP 39367). This was the worlds rst motorboat and boat
engines soon would become Daimlers main product for several years. The rst customers expressed
fear the petrol engine could explode, so Daimler hid
the engine with a ceramic cover and told them it was
oil-electrical.
street-cars and trolleys.
in the air in Daimlers balloon, usually regarded as
the rst airship, where it replaced a hand-operated
engine designed by Dr. Friedrich Hermann Wlfert
of Leipzig. With the new engine, Daimler successfully ew over Seelberg on 10 August 1888.
They sold their rst foreign licenses for engines in 1887
and Maybach went as their representative to the 1889
Paris Exposition to show their achievements.

The Reitwagen (riding car), the worlds rst internal combustion

motorcycle (1885)

In November 1885, Daimler installed a smaller version

of this engine in a wooden two wheeler frame with
two outrigger wheels, creating the rst internal combustion motorcycle (Patent 36-423imp & Sohn Vehicle
with gas or petroleum drive machine). It was named
the Reitwagen (riding car). Maybach rode it for three
kilometers (two miles) alongside the river Neckar, from
Cannstatt to Untertrkheim, reaching 12 kilometres per
hour (7 mph).

5 First Daimler-Maybach automobile built (1889)

Engine sales increased, mostly for use in boats, and in
June 1887, Daimler bought another property at Seelberg
hill, Cannstatt. It was located some distance from the
town on Ludwigstrae 67 because Cannstatts mayor did
not approve of the workshop. Built at a cost 30,200 goldmarks, the new premises had room for 23 employees.
Daimler managed the commercial issues while Maybach
ran the engine design department.

In 1889, Daimler and Maybach built the Stahlradwagen,

their rst automobile that did not involve adapting a
horse-drawn carriage with their engine, but which was
somewhat inuenced by bicycle designs. There was no
production in Germany, but it was licensed to be built in
France and presented to the public in Paris in October
1889 by both engineers. The same year, Daimlers wife,
On 8 March 1886, Daimler and Maybach secretly brought
Emma Kunz, died.
a stagecoach made by Wilhelm Wafter into the house,
telling the neighbors it was a birthday gift for Mrs. Daimler. Maybach supervised the installation of a larger 1.1
hp[9] 462 cc (28 cu in)[9] (70120 mm, 2.764.72 in)[9] 6 The Phnix engine (1890 to 1900)
version of the Grandfather Clock engine into this stagecoach and it became the rst four-wheeled vehicle to With demand for engines growing, for uses in everything
reach 16 kilometres per hour (10 mph). The engine from motorboats to railcars,[8] Maybach and Daimler expower was transmitted by a set of belts. As with the mo- panded. With funding from gunpowder maker Max Duttorcycle, it was tested on the road to Untertrkheim where tenhofer, industrialist Wilhelm Lorenz, and banker Kilian
nowadays the Mercedes-Benz Arena, formerly called the von Steiner, Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft was founded
Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion, is situated.
28 November 1890,[11] with Maybach as chief designer.
Driven by Daimlers desire to use the engine as many ways Its purpose was the construction of small, high-speed enas possible,[9] Daimler and Maybach used the engine in gines for use on land, water, and air transport. The three
uses were expressed by Daimler in a sketch that became
other types of transport including:
the basis for a logo with a three-pointed star.
Also in 1885, but unknown to Maybach and Daimler,
only sixty miles away in Mannheim, Karl Benz built the
rst true automobile using an integral design for a motorized vehicle with one of his own engines. He was granted
a patent for his motorwagen on 29 January 1886.

on water (1886), by mounting it in a 4.5 metres (15

ft) long boat and achieving a speed of 6 knots (11

Many German historians consider this Daimlers pact

with the devil.[12] DMG expanded, but it changed. The

10

REFERENCES

newcomers, not believing in automobile production, or- The ill-dened relationship between the inventors and
dered the creation of additional stationary building capac- DMG harmed the image of DMGs technical department.
ity, and considered merging DMG with Ottos Deutz-AG. This continued until 1894 when the British industrialist
Daimler and Maybach preferred plans to produce au- Frederick Simms made it a condition of his 350,000 mark
tomobiles and reacted against Duttenhofer and Lorenz. purchase of a Phoenix engine license, which would staMaybach was denied a seat on the board and on 11 Febru- bilize the corporations nances, that Daimler, now aged
ary 1891, he left the business. He continued his design sixty, should return to DMG. Gottlieb Daimler received
work as a freelance in Cannstatt from his own house, with 200,000 goldmarks in shares, plus a 100,000 bonus.
Simms received the right to use the name Daimler as
Daimlers support, moving to the closed Hermann Hotel
in the autumn of 1892. He used its ballroom and winter his brand name for the engines. In 1895, the year DMG
assembled its 1,000th engine, Maybach returned as chief
garden as workshops, employing twelve workers and ve
engineer, receiving 30,000 shares.
apprentices.
The new company developed the high-speed inline-two During this period, they agreed to licenses to build DaimPhnix, for which Maybach invented a spray carburettor, ler engines around the world, which included:
a needless innovation given it still relied on hot tube
France, from 1890, by Panhard et Levassor and
ignition.[8] This was tted in a singularly ugly car,[8]
Peugeot
which entered production (after a cessation of hostilities between Daimler, Maybach, and the DMG board),
the United States, from 1891, by American and Gerin 1895.[8]
man piano maker Steinway & Sons

First automobile sold (1892)

the United Kingdom, from 1893, by Frederick

Simms' Daimler Motor Syndicate transferred in
1896 to the Daimler Motor Company

In 1892, DMG nally sold its rst automobile. Gottlieb

Austria, by Austro Daimler
Daimler, aged 58, had heart problems and suered a collapse in the winter of 18921893. His doctor prescribed
Daimler died in 1900, and in 1907 Maybach resigned
a trip to Florence, where he met Lina Hartmann, a widow
from DMG.
22 years his junior who was the owner of the hotel where
he was staying. They married on 8 July 1893, honeymooning in Chicago during its World Fair.
The disputes with Lorenz continued. Daimler attempted
to buy 102 extra shares to get a majority holding, but was
forced out of his post as technical director. The corporation was 400,000 goldmarks in debt. The other directors
threatened to declare bankruptcy if Daimler didn't sell
them all his shares and all his personal patent rights from
the previous thirty years. Daimler accepted the oer, receiving 66,666 goldmarks, and resigned in 1893.

8 Honours

Gottlieb Daimler was accepted into the Automotive Hall

of Fame in 1978. Between 1993 and July 2008 Daimler
had a stadium named after him in Stuttgart, Germany.
The Mercedes-Benz Arena was the venue for six matches
in the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.

Gottlieb Daimlers motto was Das Beste oder nichts

(The best or nothing at all"; Nothing but the best).[14]
In 1894 at the Hermann Hotel, Maybach together with
Mercedes-Benz adopted this motto as their slogan in
Daimler and his son Paul designed a third engine called
2010.
the Phoenix and had DMG make it. It featured:
four cylinders cast in one block arranged vertically
and parallel

9 See also

camshaft operated exhaust valves

List of German inventors and discoverers

a spray nozzle carburetor, patented by Maybach in

1893

Siegfried Marcus

an improved belt drive system

This is probably the same internal-combustion engine referred to by the American author and historian Henry
Brooks Adams, who describes the Daimler motor and
its great speed from his visit to the 1900 Paris Exposition
in his autobiography.[13]

10 References
[1] Gottlieb Daimler. Encyclopdia Britannica.
[2] Wise, David Burgess (1974). Daimler: Founder of the
Four-Wheeler, in Northey, Tom, ed. World of Automobiles. London: Orbis, Volume 5, p. 481.

[3] Wise, p. 481.

[4] Press Kit: Mercedes-Benz in the UK. Stuttgart, 13 June
2007; Daimler Global Media
[5] Ehland, Christoph ed. (2007) Thinking Northern: Textures of Identity in the North of England. Editions Rodopi,
Amsterdam
[6] Wise, p. 482.
[7] Wise, pp. 482483.
[8] Wise, p.483.
[9] Georgano, G. N. (1990) Cars: Early and Vintage, 1886
1930. London: Grange-Universal, p. 13.
[10] Abrams, Michael (April 2012), Gottlieb Daimler,
American Society of Mechanical Engineers
[11] Wise, p.483, makes no mention of nancial troubles, nor
of von Steiner.
[12] Etscheit, Georg. Der Tftler im Glashaus. Zeus.zeit.de.
Retrieved 9 May 2009.
[13] Adams, H., The Education of Henry Adams, Ch XXV,
originally published 1918
[14] Nitske, W Robert (1955). The complete Mercedes story:
the thrilling seventy-year history of Daimler. London:
Macmillan. p. 9. OCLC 59017729.

11

Sources

Siebertz, Paul. Gottlieb Daimler: ein Revolutionr

der Technik. 4. Auage, Stuttgart: Reclam Verlag,
1950.
Wise, David Burgess. Daimler: Founder of the
Four-Wheeler, in Northey, Tom, ed. World of Automobiles Volume 5, pp. 4813. London: Orbis,
1974.

12

External links

Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz-Foundation

Encarta article (Archived 2009-10-31)
The workaholic who made the automotive revolution possible

13

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