Gottlieb Daimler

                                               In 1885, a few months before Karl Benz produced his motor car, another German engineer, Gottlieb Daimler (1834–1900) along with his business partner William Maybach (1846–1929) designed and built an internal combustion engine based on the four-stroke process invented by his former employer, German inventor Nikolaus Otto (1832–91). Daimler, Maybach and others founded the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (DMG) company in 1890 to manufacture and sell cars and engines.

First motorcycle

Daimler, Maybach and the Reitwagen

      Daimler attached the newly-designed petrol engine to a wooden-framed bicycle. Daimler's 17-year-old son Paul rode the world’s first motor vehicle, a motorcycle, about 17 kilometres (11 miles) around the streets of Cannstatt, Germany. It was called the Reitwagen, meaning "riding car". During the trip, the saddle, fitted too close to the top of the engine, burst into flames. In 1886, Daimler built the first four-wheeled petrol car, a "horseless carriage", by fixing the petrol engine to a stagecoach.