Daimler, Gottlieb Wilhelm (1834–1900)

German engineer who pioneered the car and the internal-combustion engine together with Wilhelm Maybach. In 1885 he produced a motor bicycle and in 1889 his first four-wheeled motor vehicle. He combined the vaporization of fuel with the high-speed four-stroke petrol engine.

Daimler's work on the internal-combustion engine began in earnest in 1872 when he teamed up with Nikolaus Otto at a gas-engine works; Maybach was the chief designer. Daimler built his first petrol engines in 1883. The Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft was founded in 1890, and Daimler engines were also manufactured under licence; a Daimler-powered car won the first international car race: Paris to Rouen 1894.

Daimler was born near Stuttgart and trained as a mechanical engineer at the Stuttgart Polytechnic. He gained factory experience in various engineering works, including that of English engineer Joseph Whitworth in Manchester. In France he many have seen J J E Lenoir's newly developed gas engine.

Daimler's first working petrol-fuelled unit was an air-cooled, single-cylinder engine with a large cast-iron flywheel running at 900 rpm. The second engine was fitted to a bicycle in November 1885 (possibly even earlier). Daimler went on to try his engine as the power source for a boat.