Daimler, Gottlieb Wilhelm

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.