Gottlieb Diamler
Born the son of a master baker in Schorndorf, Germany in 1834, Gottlieb Daimler was a German engineer, inventor and pioneer automobile manufacturer. He is credited with being the inventor of the first motorcycle. His improvements to the internal combustion engine, invented in the 1880’s, contributed a great deal to the emergence of the automobile industry.
Starting out as a gunsmith, he eventually turned his attention to the locomotive industry. Following that he enrolled in Stuttgart Polytechnic and received his education in engineering. Working for various engineering firms in France and England, he was entrusted with the reorganization of the engineering works of the Reutlingen Brotherhood. Here he made the acquaintance of a young engineer, Wilhelm Maybach. The meeting proved to be fortuitous for both young men and began what would become a very fruitful friendship. In 1869, Daimler joined the Maschinenbaugesellschaft Karlsruhe as "Chairman of all Workshops"; he arranged the very same year for Maybach to be taken on. Henceforth, Daimler and Maybach formed an inseparable team.
In 1872, Gottlieb Daimler became Technical Director of the Gasmotorenfabrik Deutz AG which had been founded by Nikolaus Otto and Eugen Langen shortly beforehand. Maybach came over with him and became the Head of Design. During their time there, Otto developed his four stroke engine and Daimler realized that this smaller, lighter engine would replace the larger gasoline engines of the time.
Daimler, along with Otto and Maybach, decided to attempt to develop this lighter internal combustion engine for propelling road vehicles. After a falling out with Otto in 1892, Daimler and Maybach set up their own company. Focusing on producing the first light-weight, high-speed engine to run on gasoline; they created an engine with a surface carburetor. This new system vaporized the gasoline and mixed it with air, thus giving their engine 900 revolutions per minute versus the 130 revolutions per minute that the engine they had created with Otto achieved. This second engine was fitted to a bicycle around November 1885 and the motorcycle was born. Of course, this first prototype was far removed from the motorcycles of today. The chassis was made completely of wood, with iron banded wooden wheels and two spring-loaded outrigger wheels. Daimler named his vehicle "Reitwagen" or “riding car", but it was nicknamed “Bone Crusher” for its jarring ride and its habit of throwing riders.
Both inventors were only concerned with testing their new fast-running combustion engine in a simple vehicle with an uncomplicated steering system. This experimental vehicle had their four-stroke one-cylinder engine with 0.5hp power output at 700rpm. The Reitwagen in the museum of the Daimler-Benz AG is a replica, because the original was destroyed at the fire in 1903 in the Cannstatt plant.
After having successfully tested their engine on a two wheeled conveyance, the two men then adapted it to a four wheeled vehicle, making them the successful inventors of the first gas driven four wheeled automobile in 1886. This was the beginning of the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, meaning "Daimler Motor Company", which built cars from the 1890s onwards, and sold licenses of its designs and patents to other manufacturers. To avoid confusion and licensing troubles, the name Mercedes was adopted for the cars built by Daimler itself in the early 1900s, while the name Daimler was last used for a German built car in 1908.
Gottlieb Daimler died in 1900, but not before insuring that his name would pass down through the generations as the inventor of not only the motorcycle, but the automobile as well. His contributions to the internal combustion engine created the underpinnings of the automobile industry, which was then brought to mass production by Henry Ford’s assembly line.
