In 1867 Gottlieb Daimler was manager of an engineering works, and was married in 1867 to Emma Kurz, and then met Wilhelm Maybach who was to become a big name in automotive history. In 1869 Daimler became director of a Karlsruhe engineering plant and hired Maybach to work for him, before moving to a company making Otto gas engines in 1872, taking Maybach with him. But there was a problem with the gas engines, they needed a ceiling up to 13 feet high, which was too much for small workshops, so Daimler was given a brief to develop a petrol engine. Otto produced a drawing for his four stroke engine in May 1876, and Daimler ordered some electrical ignition systems, but dropped them in favour of the crude hot tube. But there were personal clashes between Daimler, Otto, and Eugen Langen, so Gottlieb was sent out of the way on a tour of Russia, leaving the company on his return to Germany. From a factory employing 300 men making 600 engines a year Daimler moved his activities to the garden shed of his new home in Canstatt, but he was now 48 years of age and needed relief from tension. Maybach came to join him, and they set about the design and production of a vehicle engine, which they achieved by 1883. The air cooled design gave place to water cooling, although the air cooled version was fitted to a wooden framed custom motorcycle, Daimler’s first vehicle, in 1885. Gottlieb then ordered a normal horse drawn coach from Wimpff & Son, and to maintain secrecy said it was a present for his wife. The engine, together with the radiator, was fitted in the rear. Maybach drove the first Daimler car in the works and the garden outside, but Gottlieb’s thoughts were on putting the engine on rails or in the water; perhaps even in the air. The first engine was a single cylinder, but by 1889 Daimler had a V-twin, which sold widely in France. He also made a flight in 1888 in a balloon driven by one of his engines, and sold many for use in boats.
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