Gottlieb Daimler, the son of a master baker, was born in Schorndorf, Württemburg, on March 17, 1834. His father wanted his son to become a municipal employee, but the young, mechanically inclined Daimler instead apprenticed himself to a gunsmith. After four years of his apprenticeship (during which he attended a technical school), Daimler worked in a steam-engine factory and eventually completed his schooling at the Stuttgart Polytechnic. He spent the next three decades working as an engineer and technical director of engine development for several companies. It was during this period that he worked with Nikolaus August Otto, the inventor of the four-cycle internal combustion engine, and Wilhelm Maybach, who become Daimler's lifelong collaborator.

In 1882 Daimler and Maybach set up a factory to produce a light, high-speed, gasoline-powered internal combustion engine. They intended to design an engine that could be used to power a vehicle. Despite early disappointments...