Tuesday 6th March 1900

Gottlieb Daimler (65), pioneer of internal-combustion engine and motor vehicles, died. In partnership with Wilhelm Maybach he patented one of the first successful high-speed internal-combustion engines (1885) and developed a carburettor that made possible the use of petrol as fuel. The two used their early petrol engines on a bicycle (1885), a four-wheeled (originally horse-drawn) carriage driven by a one-cylinder engine (1886), and a boat (1887). The two men’s efforts culminated in a four-wheeled vehicle designed from the start as a motor car (1889). This motor vehicle had rear-mounted engine on a tubular frame, with belt-driven wheels, and four speeds. In 1890 Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft was founded at Cannstatt, and in 1899 the firm built the first Mercedes car.