(Daimler invented the first ever motorcycle in the world r...)
Daimler invented the first ever motorcycle in the world run on gasoline
http://daimlermotorcycle.com/
1885
(Daimler was the creator of a motorized carriage that was ...)
Daimler was the creator of a motorized carriage that was a predecessor to four-wheeled vehicles.
http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_image.cfm?image_id=1261
automobile manufacturer engineer innovator inventor
Gottlieb Daimler was born in 1834 in Schorndorf, a town near Stuttgart in Germany. His father was Johannes Daimler, a master baker, and his mother was Wilhelmine Friederike. His family had already been living in this town for 200 years. Their name is also spelled Teimbler or Deumler. Gottlieb had four brothers and sisters.
Gottlieb was a very smart kid, which is confirmed by the fact that he completed Lateinschule (primary studies) in just six years. He showed great interest in engineering but his father wanted him to become a municipality employee. This why Gottlieb started training for the position of a gunsmith after finishing secondary school in 1848. He was taught by Hermann Raithel, a master gunsmith and successfully graduating in 1852, designing two engraved double-barrelled pistols to prove his craftsmanship. He became an apprentice of Raithel but soon decided he wants to follow his dreams and become a mechanical engineer.
The road of his life led Daimler to Stuttgart where he took up Advanced Training School in the Industrial Arts. His tutor was Ferdinand von Steinbeis, who claims that Daimler was diligent and eager to study and was often seen on extra classes held on Sunday mornings. Steinbeis helped him to get the job at a company called “Rolle and Schwilque”. In 1856, when R&S started production of railway locomotives, Daimler was placed as a foreman.
Daimler spent two years improving his skills at Stuttgart’s Polytechnic Institute. He obtained extensive knowledge of steam locomotives but also concluded that they will find their place in history soon. He believed that simple and cheap engines will succeed them.
Daimler had his first job as a foreman at the “Rolle and Schwilque” company but he resigned from that position in 1861. Instead, he decided to go to England, which was considered to be very advanced in technology. He spent two years with Beyer, Peacock and Company, which was working with machine tools. He visited the International Exhibition of 1862 in London, which once again confirmed his opinion that steam machines are not the future. Daimler wanted to make woodworking machinery and produce machine tools.
He returned to Germany in 1863 where he took the job of a designer at the Maschinenfabrik Daniel Straub. Daimler showed considerable training skills and turn the factory into a profitable one but he was forced to quit in 1869 and join the railway wagon and locomotive manufacturer Maschinenbau Gesellschaft in Karlsruhe. In 1872, Daimler was chosen to become the manager of Gasmotoren-Fabrik Deutz, an engine manufacturing factory based in Germany, a position which he accepted. As a chief designer, he brought in Wilhelm Maybach, an orphan who he met when he joined Bruderhaus Reutlingen in 1863 and who will become Daimler’s business associate for life.
Nikolaus Otto, the inventor of compressed charge internal combustion engine, partially owned the Deutz factory. Otto believed at the time that his invention will become the successor of steam engines but Daimler wanted to focus on smaller engines that could be used for transportation. Their animosity grew over the years and Daimler was fired from Deutz in 1880, rejecting the offer to take over the branch of the factory in St. Petersburg.
Daimler received a considerable compensation when he was fired, which enabled him to open an experimental workshop after he moved to Cannstatt in 1882. Maybach joined him shortly and they started devising their own engines. They made so much noise that the neighbours reported them to the police, who raided the place in their absence but found nothing but engines.
They worked long hours and finally came with a patent by the end of 1883. The Dream engine was fuelled by ligroin and it was lighter and smaller than the other engines of their time. It featured hot tube ignition, something that Daimler kept all the way until 1897 when he started using Bosch’s electrical ignition.
Daimler and Maybach moved on with their work and their next engine became known as the ‘grandfather clock’. This engine was considered to be a serious breakthrough as it could be used in vehicles. In 1885, Daimler installed this engine in the ‘reitwagen’ (riding carriage) he designed. This is known as the first motorcycle.
The next major breakthrough came in 1886 when Daimler produced his first automobile (just 50 miles further, Carl Benz did the same but their work isn’t related at all). He and Maybach called this predecessor of a four-wheeled vehicle a ‘stagecoach’, which was run by the ‘Daimler-Maybach engine’ and was able to reach the speed of about 16 km/h (10 mph). Daimler believed that the engine should be multifunctional so they successfully tested it on a boat and in a balloon.
The engine turned out to be a great hit, especially for boats, enabling Daimler to buy another property in 1887. He opened a factory with 23 employees and Maybach running the department of engine design. Two years later they were able to build Stahiradwagen, the first automobile that featured a transmission system with four speeds.
With the help of financially capable supporters, Daimler founded Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (DMG) in 1890. He first refused to make it into a stock company but finally gave in, which led to a lot of problems and his resignation in 1893. He continued to work with Maybach independently and, with the help of Daimler’s son Paul, they designed a new engine. The engine featured in first ever car race from Paris to Rouen and managed to defeat all DMG entries. Not only his former company was ashamed, but their stock started to fall despite the fact that they previously managed to begin selling automobiles.
In 1895, Daimler and Maybach returned to the company, receiving their part in shares, and in the years to come, the company agreed to sell licences to build the engines all over the world. The production of engines started in France (Peugeot), Austria, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Daimler’s heart problems were worsening every year and were the cause of his death in 1900.
Patented a successful internal-combustion engine in 1885
Produced a four-wheeled automobile that could have been made available for commercial use
Founded the Daimler company in 1890
(Daimler was the creator of a motorized carriage that was ...)
(Daimler invented the first ever motorcycle in the world r...)
1885Daimler joined the Christian Society Bruderhaus Reutlingen in 1863. It was here where he met his lifelong business associate Wilhelm Maybach, who was an orphan at the time.
As an industrialist, Daimler didn't have time to take active participation in politics. However, politics did affect him at one moment of his life, when Mayor of the town of Cannstatt disapproved his workshop, forcing him to buy a property far away from the first one he owned there.
Daimler had extensive knowledge when it comes to engineering that he combined perfectly with the innovative mind. When he was visiting the International Exhibition in London in 1862, he realized that the time of steam engines is up and the focus should be on cheaper and simpler engines that could be used in transportation.
He also understood the need to have organizational and managerial skills. This is why he turned every factory he was a manager in into a profitable one. He got considerable business skills and knew how to use them. When he founded his own company, DMG, he realized that he needs to avoid turning it into a stock company, aware that many of the founders that did that were deemed inadequate by the new board and were fired from their own company. Despite knowing that fact, he made that same mistake and left his company in 1893 for a couple of years.
Daimler’s motto was “nothing but the best”. He always gave himself completely to work and this is what helped him to become such a significant person in the history of automotive industry. Mercedes-Benz accepted this motto as theirs in 2010.
Daimler was a diligent man with an innovative mind. He had a dream of producing small engines that can be used for transportation and gave his best to achieve it. He didn't look for conflicts but he had a couple of them during his life, most remembered is the one with Nikolaus Otto, which is why Daimler left the Deutz company and started working in his own workshop. He was nice and full of respect for his wives and children.
Guns
Gustav Werner
Johann Wolfgang Goethe
Carl Spitzweg
Daimler had two marriages. His first wife was Emma Kunz, who he married in 1867. They had two children, sons Adolf and Paul. After Emma's death in 1889, Daimler was on a vacation in Florence, as recommended by his doctor, when he met Lina Hartmann, the owner of a hotel and also a widow. They had married and spent their honeymoon in Chicago.
Paul was Gottlieb's eldest son who followed in his father footsteps and became a mechanical engineer
Daimler met him at the Bruderhaus Reutlingen and they became lifelong business associates and friends
