Automotive History Online
Automotive History Online
DMG
Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft
1890-1924
After leaving Deutz-AG, Daimler and Maybach began to work together. In 1882, they moved back to Stuttgart in Southern Germany, purchasing a cottage in Cannstatt's Taubenheimstrasse, with 75,000 Gold marks from the compensation from Deutz-AG. In the garden, they added a brick extension to the roomy glass-fronted summerhouse and this became their workshop. Eventually, their activities alarmed the neighbors who called the police and reported them as suspected counterfeiters. The police obtained a key from their gardener and raided the house in their absence, but found only engines.
In 1890 Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (Daimler Engines Company) or DMG, was founded with Maybach as chief designer. Its purpose was the construction of small, high speed engines for use on land, water, and air transport. The three uses is the basis for the modern Mercedes-Benz logo of a three-pointed star.
Daimler and Maybach spent long hours debating how best to fuel Otto's Four-Stroke design, and turned to a byproduct of petroleum. The main distillates of petroleum at the time were lubricating oil, Kerosene (burned as lamp fuel), and Benzene (now known as Gasoline or Petrol), which up to then was used mainly as a cleaner and was sold in pharmacies.
In late 1885, Daimler and Maybach developed the first of their engines, which is often considered the precursor of all modern petrol engines. It featured:
In 1885, they created a carburetor which mixed gasoline with air allowing its use as fuel. In the same year Daimler and Maybach assembled a larger version of their engine, still relatively compact, but now with a vertical cylinder of 100 cm² displacement and an output of 1 hp at 600 rpm (patent DRP-28-022: "non-cooled, heat insulated engine with unregulated hot-tube ignition"). It was baptized the Grandfather Clock (Standuhr), because Daimler thought that it resembled an old pendulum clock. This is probably the same internal-combustion engine referred to by American author and historian Henry Adams, who, in his autobiography, describes the "Daimler motor" (Kolocotroni, Goldman and Taxidou 42) at the Paris Exposition of 1910 (Kolocotroni, Goldman and Taxidou 41).
In November 1885, Daimler installed a smaller version of this engine in a wooden bicycle, creating the first motorcycle (Patent 36-423impff & Sohn "Vehicle with gas or petroleum drive machine"). It was named the "riding car" ("Reitwagen"). Maybach rode it for 3 kilometers alongside the river Neckar, from Cannstatt to Untertürkheim, reaching 12 km/h (7 mph).
Also in 1885 Karl Benz built a three wheeled automobile and was granted a patent for it dated January 29, 1886.
On March 8, 1886, Daimler and Maybach secretly brought a stagecoach made by Wilhelm Wafter to the house, telling the neighbors that it was a birthday gift for Mrs. Daimler. Maybach supervised the installation of a larger 1.5 hp version of the Grandfather Clock engine into this and it became the first four wheeled vehicle to reach 16 km/h (10 mph). The engine power was transmitted by a set of belts. Like the motor cycle, it also was tested on the road to Untertürkheim where nowadays the Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion is situated.
Daimler and Maybach also used the engine in other types of transport including:
They sold their first foreign licenses for engines in 1887 and Maybach went as company representative to the Paris World's Fair (1886 to 1889), to show their achievements.
Engine sales increased, mostly for boat use, and in June 1887, Daimler bought another property at Seelberg hill, Cannstatt. It was located some distance from the town on Ludwigstraße 67 because Cannstatt's mayor did not approve of the workshop which cost 30,200 gold marks. The new premises had room for twenty-three employees and Daimler managed the commercial issues while Maybach ran the Design Department.
In 1889, Daimler and Maybach built their first automobile that did not involve adapting a horse drawn carriage with their engine, but was somewhat influenced by bicycle designs. There was no production in Germany, but it was licensed to be built in France and presented to the public in Paris in October 1889 by both inventors. The same year, Daimler's wife, Emma Kunz, died.
Daimler and Maybach were struggling financially with the company, they were not selling enough engines or making enough money from their patents. Two financiers and munitions makers, Max Von Duttenhofer and William Lorenz, along with the influential banker Kilian Steiner agreed to inject some capital and converted the company on November 28, 1890 into a public corporation named the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, DMG.
Many German historians consider that this was Daimler's "pact with the devil" . DMG expanded, but it changed. The newcomers, not believing in automobile production, ordered the creation of additional stationary building capacity, and also considered merging DMG with Otto's Deutz-AG.
Daimler and Maybach preferred plans to produce automobiles and reacted against Duttenhofer and Lorenz. Maybach was denied a seat on the Board and on February 11, 1891, left the company. He continued his design work as a freelance in Cannstatt from his own house, with Daimler's support, moving to the closed Hermann Hotel in the autumn of 1892 using its ballroom and winter garden, employing twelve workers and five apprentices.
Finally—in 1892—DMG sold its first automobile. Gottlieb Daimler, at age fifty-eight, had heart problems and suffered a collapse in the winter of 1892/1893. His doctor prescribed a trip to Florence, Italy where he met Lina Hartmann, a widow twenty-two years his junior, and owner of the hotel where he was staying. They married on July 8, 1893, honeymooning in Chicago during its World Fair.
The disputes with Lorenz continued. Daimler attempted to buy 102 extra shares to get a majority holding, but was forced out of his post as technical director. The company also was in debt to the amount of 400,000 gold marks and the other directors threatened to declare bankruptcy if Daimler didn't sell them all his shares and all his personal patent rights from the previous thirty years. Daimler accepted the option, receiving 66,666 Gold-marks, resigning in 1893.
In 1894 at the Hermann Hotel, Maybach together with Daimler and his son Paul designed a third engine called the Phoenix and had DMG make it. It featured:
It became famous around the world and one fitted to a car won the petrol engine category of the first car race in history, the Paris to Rouen 1894.
The ill defined relationship between the inventors and DMG harmed the image of DMG's technical department. This continued until during 1894 when the British industrialist Fredrick Simms made it a condition of his 350,000 mark purchase of a Phoenix engine license, which would stabilize the company finances, that Daimler, now aged sixty, should return to DMG. Gottlieb Daimler received 200,000 gold marks in shares, plus a 100,000 bonus. Simms received the right to use the Daimler brand name. In 1895, the year DMG assembled its 1000th engine, Maybach also returned as chief engineer, receiving 30,000 in shares.
During this period, their agreed licenses to build Daimler engines around the world included:
Daimler died in 1900 and in 1907 Maybach resigned from DMG. In 1918 discussions With DMG about collaboration were initiated by Karl Benz, but rejected by the managers. In 1924 they resumed, and an agreement was reached that shared resources but provided for the production of separate brands. In 1924 a merger took place for a new company, Daimler-Benz, that led to a new brand name for the products produced by both, Mercedes-Benz. Daimler-Benz merged with Chrysler in 1999, resulting in Daimler-Chrysler.
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