1834-19OO
Automobile Manufacturer

Early Career. Forever linked in the public mind and in historical memory with Karl Friedrich Benz (1844-1929), whom he never met, Gottlieb Wilhelm Daimler was born in Schorndorf, Baden-Wurttemberg. He trained to be a gunsmith before studying engineering at the Stuttgart polytechnic institute. In 1872, after working for several engineering firms, Daimler became technical director for a company founded by Nikolaus A. Otto (1832-1891), who in 1876 invented the four-stroke internal-combustion engine. In 1882 Daimler founded his own firm and sought to develop an engine that could propel road vehicles.

Horseless Carriages. In 1886 in Karlstadt, Daimler and his chief engineer, Wilhelm Maybach (1846-1929), added a one-cylinder engine to a conventional four-wheeled carriage. By 1889 they had developed a carburetor that used gasoline as fuel, a four-speed gearbox, and a belt-driven mechanism to turn wheels. Their vehicle incorporating these devices traveled at eleven miles per hour...