Gottlieb Daimler

Gottlieb Daimler was a German engineer who spent his career chasing one idea: shrink the engine, speed it up, mount it anywhere. In 1883, working with Wilhelm Maybach, he designed a compact liquid petroleum engine that could be throttled — useful, at last, for moving things. Two years later they fitted a vertical version to a two-wheeler, the Petroleum Reitwagen, creating the first internal combustion motorcycle. The next year the same engine went into a coach and a boat. In 1890 they formed Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft and sold their first automobile in 1892. Daimler fell ill, returned, clash…