Automotive History - Catalog - Page 12
Gottlieb
Daimler
I
n 1885, Gottlieb Daimler, with the help of
Wilhelm Maybach, developed the forerunner of
the modern gas engine by advancing Nicolaus
Otto's oil-powered design.
Adapting the engine to a stagecoach, Daimler
successfully designed the world's first four-wheeled
automobile.
Design of
Automobile and
Motorcycle Engines
U.S. Patent No. 334,109
U.S. Patent No. 361,931
Inducted in 2006
Born March 17, 1834 - Died March 6, 1900
After earning a mechanical engineering degree from
Stuttgart Polytechnic, Daimler pursued the need for a
small, practical, low-powered engine. Frenchman
Etienne Lenoir had designed an early model of a
smaller engine, but it lacked efficiency. Noting
Lenoir's pioneering concepts, Daimler and Maybach
spent ten years developing a practical gasolinepowered engine. With their new engine as the focal
point, they applied their ideas to vehicles, developing
and patenting a self-firing ignition starter. In 1885, the
first gasoline-powered internal combustion engine was
fitted onto a motorcycle.
Daimler and Maybach continued to improve gasolinepowered engines, inventing the first V-shaped, twocylinder, four-stroke engine. That engine was the
foundation for today's automobile engines. Daimler
founded the Daimler Motoren-Gesellschaft in 1890 to
build engines according to his designs.
Reference: National Inventors Hall of Fame (2024, 29. March):
Inductee: Gottlieb Daimler Design of Automobile and Motorcycle Engines.
NIHF. https://www.invent.org/inductees/gottlieb-daimler