Gottlieb Daimler

Hello! My name is Gottlieb Daimler. I was born a long, long time ago, on March 17th, 1834, in a town called Schorndorf in Germany. Even when I was a little boy, I loved figuring out how things worked. I would look at clocks and tools and wonder about all the little pieces inside that made them move. I knew that one day, I wanted to build amazing machines of my own.

When I grew up, I became an engineer, which is like a machine-builder! I met a very clever friend named Wilhelm Maybach. Wilhelm was brilliant at drawing up plans for new inventions. We had a big dream together. Back then, carriages were pulled by horses. We thought, 'What if we could build a small engine, powered by gasoline, that could make a carriage move all by itself?' We set up a workshop in my garden shed in 1882 and worked day and night to make our dream come true.

Finally, in 1885, we did it! We built a small but powerful engine. To test it, we attached it to a wooden bicycle. It was wobbly and loud, but it worked! It zipped along without any pedals. We had just invented the world's first motorcycle! We called it the 'Reitwagen,' which means 'riding car.' We were so excited. The very next year, in 1886, we put a bigger engine inside a real four-wheeled carriage. Imagine the surprise when people saw a carriage moving down the street with no horses! We had created one of the very first automobiles.

Our inventions helped change the way people travel forever. I founded a company to build more of my engines and cars. I lived to be 65 years old, and I was so proud to see our ideas grow. After my time, my company joined with another car-maker, Karl Benz, to create the company that builds the famous Mercedes-Benz cars you see today. My dream was to create engines that could be used on land, on water, and in the air, and it's amazing to know my work helped make that happen.