• Engineer George Brayton, 1830
• Engineer and Industrialist Gottlieb Daimler, 1834
• Engineer and Industrialist Wilhelm Maybach, 1846

In 1872 Brayton patented an internal combustion stationary engine initially using gas but more commonly liquid fuels such as kerosene and petroleum known as Brayton's Ready Motor, which had one cylinder for compression, a receiver reservoir, and a separate power cylinder in which the products of combustion expanded for the power stroke. The significant difference from other piston driven internal combustion engines is that the two cylinders are arranged so that the fuel / air mixture burns progressively at constant pressure as it is transferred from the compressor cylinder and reservoir to the working cylinder. In the original engine a gas / air mixture was compressed, and metal gauze / mesh was used to prevent the combustion running back to the compressor. However the consequences of a break in the mesh, leading to flash - back were a problem, so the engine was switched to using liquid fuel introduced as the air passed from the compressor to the working cylinder. The principle was referred to as constant pressure combustion, and had been attempted without success by Sir William Siemens c1861 using a 4 cylinder engine with separate combustion chamber. Brayton not only achieved success in making the constant pressure cycle work, but he also made and marketed a commercial product.

The engine's cycle of operations including sectional drawings, indicator diagrams (for both gas and petroleum fueled versions) and details of the way the liquid fuel was introduced are described over 11 pages of Dugald Clerk's book "Gas and Oil Engines". The petroleum engine in these tests was made by the "New York and New Jersey Ready Motor Company". This is followed by a similar analysis of Simon's engine which was an adaptation of the Brayton engine made by Louis Simon & Sons, in Nottingham, UK, and marketed as The Eclipse Silent Gas Engine. The Simon engine had an added complexity in that it injected some of the water / steam heated by the engine / exhaust into the engine. The indicator diagrams for this engine are also reported by Dugald Clerk and show that the addition of the water has little merit in terms of power production, the cooling of the gases and expansion of the steam compensating for each other.

Because the Brayton engine had a slow progressive burn of the fuel / air mixture it was possible to maintain a pilot flame, and so the engine, once lit, needed no form of ignition system. The measured efficiency of the gas engine was intermediate between that of the Lenoir / Hugon engines, and the Otto & Langen atmospheric engine, but the liquid fueled Brayton engine had an advantage in not requiring a gas supply.

The early Brayton gas engine had the engine speed governed by varying the point of cut - off for the admission of the combusted gases into the power cylinder, and the admissions of gas and air to the pump was similarly regulated to maintain the reservoir pressure. The liquid fueled engine reported by Clerk only regulated the cut - off to the power cylinder, and used a pressure relief valve to limit the reservoir air pressure. The reservoir on the Brayton engine allowed it to be readily started if it remained pressurized, though Clerk states that "that leakage and loss were so frequent that the apparatus was of little use."

Brayton's engine was displayed at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, and the Simon variant was displayed at the 1878 Paris Exhibition, and for a few years was well regarded, but within a short time the Otto engine became more popular. However, it was considered the first safe and practical oil engine and also served as inspiration to George B. Selden. As a production engine the design evolved over time, and according to Henry de Graffigny in "Gas and Petroleum Engines", it was available in both vertical and horizontal forms.

A Brayton Engine is preserved in the Smithsonian in the American History museum, and a later Brayton engine which powered one of John Philip Holland's early submarines is preserved in the Paterson Museum in the Old Great Falls Historic District of Paterson, New Jersey.

Gottlieb Daimler (March 17, 1834 – March 6, 1900) was an engineer, industrial designer and industrialist born in Schorndorf (Kingdom of Württemberg, a federal state of the German Confederation), in what is now Germany. He was a pioneer of internal combustion engines and automobile development. He invented the high speed petrol engine and the first four - wheel automobile.

Daimler and his lifelong business partner Wilhelm Maybach were two inventors whose goal was to create small, high speed engines to be mounted in any kind of locomotion device. In 1885 they designed a precursor of the modern petrol (gasoline) engine which they subsequently fitted to a two - wheeler, the first internal combustion motorcycle and, in the next year, to a stagecoach, and a boat. Daimler baptized it the Grandfather Clock engine (Standuhr) because of its resemblance to an old pendulum clock.

In 1890, they founded Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (DMG, in English Daimler Motors Corporation). They sold their first automobile in 1892. Daimler fell ill and took a break from the business. Upon his return he experienced difficulty with the other stockholders that led to his resignation in 1893. This was reversed in 1894. Maybach resigned at the same time, and also returned. In 1900 Daimler died and Wilhelm Maybach quit DMG in 1907. In 1924, the DMG management signed a long term co-operation agreement with Karl Benz's Benz & Cie., and in 1926 the two companies merged to become Daimler - Benz AG, which is now part of Daimler AG.

Gottlieb Wilhelm Daimler was the son of a baker named Johannes Däumler (Daimler) and his wife Frederika, from the town of Schorndorf near Stuttgart, Württemberg. By the age of 13 (1847), he had completed six years of primary studies in Lateinschule where he had taken additional drawing lessons on Sundays and expressed an interest in engineering.The next year, he started studying gunsmithing, building with his teacher, Riedel, a double barreled gun.

In 1852 when eighteen, Daimler decided to take up mechanical engineering, and left his hometown.

In the summer of 1860 Daimler, then aged 26, left in order to work for Graffenstaden Maschinenfabrik. At the end of 1863 he found employment in Geislingen at the metal ware factory of Straub und Sohn, the business that would later become a household name as WMF (Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik).

Daimler later worked at Deutz.

In 1872 (at age 38), Daimler and Maybach moved to work at the world's largest manufacturer of stationary engines at the time, the Deutz - AG - Gasmotorenfabrik in Cologne. It was half owned by Nikolaus Otto, who was looking for a new technical director. As directors, both Daimler and Otto focused on gas engine development while Maybach was chief designer.

In 1876, Otto invented the four - stroke cycle, also known as the Otto Cycle, a system characterized by four piston strokes (intake, compression, power, and exhaust). Otto intended that his invention would replace the steam engines predominant in those years, even though his engine was still primitive and inefficient. Otto's engine was patented in 1877, but the patent was soon challenged and overturned. Unbeknownst to Otto, Daimler, and Maybach, in Mannheim during 1878, Karl Benz was concentrating all his efforts on creating a reliable two - stroke gas engine based on the same principle. Benz finished his engine on December 31, 1878, and was granted a patent for his engine in 1879.

Meanwhile, serious personal differences arose between Daimler and Otto, reportedly with Otto being jealous of Daimler, because of his university background and knowledge. Daimler was fired in 1880, receiving 112 goldmarks in Deutz - AG shares in compensation for the patents of both Daimler and Maybach. Maybach resigned later.

After leaving Deutz - AG, Daimler and Maybach started to work together. In 1882, they moved back to Stuttgart in southern Germany, purchasing a cottage in Cannstatt's Taubenheimstrasse, with 75,000 goldmarks from the compensation from Deutz - AG. In the garden, they added a brick extension to the roomy glass fronted summer house and this became their workshop. Their activities alarmed the neighbors who reported them to the police as suspected counterfeiters. The police obtained a key from the gardener and raided the house in their absence, but found only engines.

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 benzine, 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 petrol engines, which featured:

• a single horizontal cylinder of 264 cc (16 cu in) (58 × 100 mm, 2.28 × 3.94 in)
• air cooling
• large cast iron flywheel
• hot tube ignition system (patent 28022)
• cam operated exhaust valves, allowing high speed operation
• 0.5 hp (370 W)
• 600 rpm running speed, beating previous engines, which typically ran at about 120 to 180 rpm
• weight of around 50 kg (110 lb)
• height of 76 cm (30 in)

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 cc 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 Standuhr (Grandfather Clock), because Daimler thought it resembled an old pendulum clock.

In November 1885, Daimler installed a smaller version of this engine in a wooden two wheeler frame with two outrigger wheels, creating the first internal combustion motorcycle (Patent 36-423impff & Sohn "Vehicle with gas or petroleum drive machine"). It was named the Reitwagen (riding car). Maybach rode it for three kilometers (two miles) alongside the river Neckar, from Cannstatt to Untertürkheim, reaching 12 kilometres per hour (7 mph).

Also in 1885, but unknown to Maybach and Daimler, only sixty miles away in Mannheim, Karl Benz built the first true automobile using an integral design for a motorized vehicle with one of his own engines. He was granted a patent for his motorwagen on January 29, 1886.

On March 8, 1886, Daimler and Maybach secretly brought a stagecoach made by Wilhelm Wafter into the house, telling the neighbors it was a birthday gift for Mrs. Daimler. Maybach supervised the installation of a larger 1.1 hp 462 cc (28 cu in) (70 × 120 mm, 2.76 × 4.72 in) version of the Grandfather Clock engine into this stagecoach and it became the first four - wheeled vehicle to reach 16 kilometres per hour (10 mph). The engine power was transmitted by a set of belts. As with the motorcycle, it was tested on the road to Untertürkheim where nowadays the Mercedes - Benz Arena, formerly called the Gottlieb - Daimler - Stadion, is situated.

Driven by Daimler's desire to use the engine as many ways as possible, Daimler and Maybach used the engine in other types of transport including:

• on water (1886), by mounting it in a 4.5 meters (15 ft) long boat and achieving a speed of 6 knots (11 km/h; 6.9 mph). The boat was called Neckar after the river where it was tested. (patent DRP 39-367). This was the world's first motorboat and boat engines soon would become Daimler's main product for several years. The first customers expressed fear the petrol engine could explode, so Daimler hid the engine with a ceramic cover and told them it was "oil - electrical".
• street - cars and trolleys.
• in the air in Daimler's balloon, usually regarded as the first airship, where it replaced a hand - operated engine designed by Dr. Friedrich Hermann Wölfert of Leipzig. With the new engine, Daimler successfully flew over Seelberg on August 10, 1888.

They sold their first foreign licenses for engines in 1887 and Maybach went as their representative to the 1889 Paris Exposition to show their achievements.

Engine sales increased, mostly for use in boats, 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. Built at a cost 30,200 goldmarks, the new premises had room for 23 employees. Daimler managed the commercial issues while Maybach ran the engine design department.

In 1889, Daimler and Maybach built their first automobile that did not involve adapting a horse - drawn carriage with their engine, but which 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 engineers. The same year, Daimler's wife, Emma Kunz, died.

In 1890 Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft , 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 were expressed by Daimler in a sketch that became the basis for a logo with a three - pointed star.

Daimler and Maybach were struggling financially, as 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 von Steiner agreed to inject some capital and on November 28, 1890 ownership was transferred to a public corporation, Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft.

Many German historians consider this 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 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, he left the business. 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. He used its ballroom and winter garden as workshops, employing twelve workers and five apprentices.

In 1892, DMG finally sold its first automobile. Gottlieb Daimler, aged 58, had heart problems and suffered a collapse in the winter of 1892 - 1893. His doctor prescribed a trip to Florence, where he met Lina Hartmann, a widow 22 years his junior who was the 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 corporation was 400,000 goldmarks in debt. 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 offer, receiving 66,666 goldmarks, and resigned 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:

• four cylinders cast in one block arranged vertically and parallel
• camshaft operated exhaust valves
• a spray nozzle carburetor, patented by Maybach in 1893
• an improved belt drive system

It became famous around the world. When fitted to a car it won the petrol engine category of the first car race in history, the Paris to Rouen 1894. This is probably the same internal combustion engine referred to by the American author and historian Henry Brooks Adams, who describes the "Daimler motor" and its great speed from his visit to the 1900 Paris Exposition in his autobiography.

The ill defined relationship between the inventors and DMG harmed the image of DMG's technical department. This continued until 1894 when the British industrialist Frederick Simms made it a condition of his 350,000 mark purchase of a Phoenix engine license, which would stabilize the corporation's finances, that Daimler, now aged sixty, should return to DMG. Gottlieb Daimler received 200,000 goldmarks in shares, plus a 100,000 bonus. Simms received the right to use the name "Daimler" as his brand name for the engines. In 1895, the year DMG assembled its 1,000th engine, Maybach returned as chief engineer, receiving 30,000 shares.

During this period, they agreed to licenses to build Daimler engines around the world, which included:

• France, from 1890, by Panhard et Levassor and Peugeot
• the United States, from 1891, by American and German piano maker Steinway & Sons
• the United Kingdom, from 1893, by Frederick Simms' Daimler Motor Syndicate transferred in 1896 to the Daimler Motor Company
• Austria, by Austro Daimler

Daimler died in 1900, and in 1907 Maybach resigned from DMG.

Gottlieb Daimler was accepted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 1978. Between 1993 and July 2008 Daimler had a stadium named after him in Stuttgart, Germany. The Mercedes - Benz Arena was the venue for six matches in the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Gottlieb Daimler's motto was Das Beste oder nichts ("The best or nothing at all"; "Nothing but the best").

Wilhelm Maybach (9 February 1846 – 29 December 1929) was an early German engine designer and industrialist. During the 1890s he was hailed in France, then the world center for car production, as the "King of constructors".

From the late 19th century Wilhelm Maybach, together with Gottlieb Daimler, developed light, high speed internal combustion engines suitable for land, water, and air use. These were fitted to the world's first motorcycle, motorboat, and after Daimler's death, to a new automobile introduced in late 1902, the Mercedes model, built to the specifications of Emil Jellinek.

Maybach rose to become technical director of the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, or DMG, (and never known by the English name of the quite separate English business, The Daimler Motor Company) but he did not get on well with its chairmen. As a result Maybach left DMG in 1907 to found Maybach - Motorenbau GmbH together with his son Karl in 1909; they manufactured Zeppelin engines. After the signing of the Versailles Treaty in 1919 the company started producing large luxury vehicles, branded as "Maybach". The company joined the German war effort in 1940, ceasing automotive production in favor of tank engines, including those for Tiger tanks.

In 1998 Daimler - Benz merged with Chrysler Corporation to become DaimlerChrysler. The new company revived the Maybach brand name as a luxury make in 2002. On November 25, 2011, Daimler - Benz announced they would cease producing automobiles under the Maybach brand name in 2013.

Wilhelm Maybach was born in Heilbronn, Baden - Württemberg in 1846, the son of a carpenter and his wife Luise. He had four brothers. When he was eight years old the family moved from Löwenstein near Heilbronn to Stuttgart. His mother died in 1856 and his father in 1859.

After his relatives published an announcement in the Stuttgarter Anzeiger newspaper, a philanthropic institution at Reutlingen took in Maybach as a student. Its founder and director, Gustav Werner, discovered Maybach's technical inclination and helped to stimulate his career by sending him to the school's engineering workshop. At 15 years old (1861), Maybach was heading for a career in Industrial design and took extra classes in physics and mathematics at Reutlingen's public high school.

By the time he was 19 years old, he was a qualified designer working on stationary engines. His workshop manager, Gottlieb Daimler, then 29, noticed his efforts and took him on as his main assistant, a post he held until Daimler's death in 1900.

In 1869, Maybach followed Daimler to Maschinenbau - Gesellschaft Karlsruhe AG in Karlsruhe, a manufacturer of heavy locomotives. Daimler was on the Executive Committee and they spent long nights discussing new designs for engines, pumps, lumber machinery, and metalworking.

In 1872, Daimler moved to Deutz - AG - Gasmotorenfabrik in Cologne, then the world's largest manufacturer of stationary gas engines. Nikolaus Otto, part owner of the company, focused on engine development with Daimler. Maybach joined them as Chief Designer.

In 1876, Nikolaus Otto patented the Otto cycle engine. It was a four - stroke cycle gas internal combustion engine with intake, compression, power, and exhaust strokes. Otto's patent on this engine was later challenged and overturned.

Also in 1876, Maybach was sent to show Deutz's engines at the Philadelphia World's Fair (USA). On returning to Cologne in 1877, he concentrated on improving the four - stroke design to get it ready for its impending commercial launch.

In 1878, Maybach married Bertha Wilhelmine Habermaas a friend of Daimler's wife, Emma Kunz. Her family members were landowners who ran the post office in Maulbronn. On 6 July 1879 Karl Maybach was born, the first of their three sons.

In 1880, Daimler and Otto had serious disagreements which resulted in Daimler leaving Deutz - AG. Daimler received 112,000 goldmarks in Deutz - AG shares as compensation for patents granted to him and Maybach. Maybach also left shortly afterwards, and followed his friend to found a new company in Cannstatt.

In 1882, Maybach moved to Taubenheimstrasse in Cannstatt, Stuttgart where Daimler had purchased a house with 75,000 goldmarks from his Deutz compensation. They added a brick extension to the glass fronted summer house in the garden, which became their workshop.

Their activities alarmed the neighbors who suspected they were engaged in counterfeiting. The police raided the property in their absence using the gardener's key, but found only engines.

In 1884, Maybach's second son, Adolf was born.

By the end of 1885, Maybach and Daimler developed the first of their engines, which is regarded as a precursor to all modern petrol engines. It featured:

• single horizontal cylinder
• air cooling
• large cast - iron flywheel
• revolutionary hot tube ignition (Patent 28022)
• exhaust valve controlled by a camshaft allowing high speeds
• a speed of 600 rpm, when at the time most engines could only achieve about 120 to 180 rpm.

In 1885, they created the first carburetor, which mixed evaporated gasoline with air to allow its efficient use as fuel. It was used that year on a larger but still compact version of the engine, now with a vertical cylinder, that featured:

• 1 Horsepower at 600 rpm output
• 100 cc engine displacement
• non cooled insulated cylinder with unregulated hot - tube ignition (patent DRP-28-022)

Daimler baptized it the Standuhr (Grandfather Clock) because of its resemblance to a pendulum clock.

In November 1885, Daimler installed a smaller version of the engine into a wooden bicycle, creating the first motorcycle (patent 36-423 - Vehicle with gas or petroleum engine), and Maybach drove it three kilometers from Cannstatt to Untertürkheim, reaching 7.5 mph (12 km/h). It became known as the Reitwagen.

On 8 March 1886, the inventors took a stagecoach built by Wilhelm Wimpff & Sohn inside the house, telling the neighbors that it was a birthday gift for Mrs. Daimler. Maybach supervised the installation of an enlarged 1.5 hp Grandfather Clock engine into the coach, and installed a belt drive to the wheels. The vehicle reached 10 mph (15 km/h) when tested on the road to Untertürkheim.

Maybach and Daimler went on to prove the engine in many other ways including:

• On water (1887). It was mounted in a 4.5 meter long boat which achieved 6 knots (11 km/h). The boat was called the Neckar after the river it was tested on and was registered as patent number DRP 39-367. Motor boat engines would become their main product until the first decade of the 1900s.
• More road vehicles including street cars
• In the air. They built the first motorized airship, a balloon based on designs by Dr. Friedrich Hermann Wölfert from Leipzig. They replaced his hand operated drive system and flew over Seelberg successfully on 10 August 1888.

By 1887 they were licensing their first patents abroad, and Maybach represented the company at the great Paris Exposition Universelle (1889).

Sales increased, mostly from the Neckar motorboat. In June 1887, Daimler bought land in the Seelberg Hills of Cannstatt. The workshop was some distance from the town on Ludwig Route 67, because Cannstatt's mayor objected to the presence of the workshop in the town. It covered 2,903 square meters and cost 30,200 goldmarks. They initially employed 23 people. Daimler managed the commercial issues and Maybach the design department.

In 1889 they built their first automobile to be designed from scratch rather than as an adaptation of a stagecoach. It was publicly launched by both inventors in Paris in October 1889.

Daimler's engine licenses began to be taken up throughout the world, starting the modern car industry in:

• France, 1890, Panhard & Levassor and Peugeot
• United Kingdom, 1896, The Daimler Motor Company of Coventry
• United States of America, 1891, Steinway
• Austro - Daimler in Austria, starting in 1899

Resources were scant to keep the business going as neither the engine sales nor the worldwide proceeds from their patents were yielding enough money. Fresh capital was injected by bringing in the financiers Max von Duttenhofer and William Lorenz, former munitions makers, who were associated with Kilian von Steiner owner of a German investment bank. The company was taken public.

In 1890, Daimler and Maybach together founded the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, the Daimler Motor Company or DMG for short, which was dedicated to the construction of small high speed internal combustion engines for land, water, or air transport. Maybach was Chief Designer. After spending long hours debating which fuel was best to use in Otto's four stroke engine, which had normally used methane gas as a fuel, they turned to petroleum which until then had been used mainly as a cleaner and sold in pharmacies.

The company's re-foundation took place on 28 November 1890. This has been regarded as a "pact with the devil" by some German historians, as the following decade was chaotic for Daimler and Maybach. DMG continued to expand, selling engines from Moscow to New York, and additional stationary engine making capacity was added, but the belief continued that automobile production wouldn't be profitable. The new chairmen planned to merge DMG and Deutz-AG, in spite of Gottlieb's disagreement with Nikolaus Otto.

Daimler and Chief Engineer Maybach preferred to produce automobiles and reacted against Duttenhofer and Lorenz in particular. Maybach was rejected as a member of the Board of Management and left the company on 11 February 1891, and continued his design work from his own house, financed by Gottlieb Daimler. In late 1892, he set up a shop in the ballroom of the former Hermann Hotel and Winter Garden where he employed 17 workers, five of which were paid by Daimler.

In 1894 Maybach designed his third engine model, together with Daimler and his son Paul. Used in the Phoenix, it gained worldwide attention, pioneering the use of four cylinders in the automobile and featuring:

• single block casting of cylinders, arranged vertically and parallel to each other
• camshaft controlled exhaust valves
• spray - nozzle carburetor (patented by Maybach in 1893)
• improved belt drive

Some of these cars gained first place in the petrol engine category in the first auto race in history, the Paris to Rouen 1894.

Maybach's creations are considered some of the finest motors of the second half of the 19th century. His inventions became indispensable for any model by any automaker in the world. He became recognized as the backbone of France's early automobile industry where he was hailed as the "King of Constructors".

Daimler was forced out of his post as Technical Director at DMG and resigned in 1893, which damaged DMG's prestige. However, in 1894, a British industrialist, Frederick Simms, purchased the rights to the Phoenix engine for 350,000 marks and stabilized the companies finances. He also made it a condition that Daimler was re-employed. In 1895 DMG assembled its 1,000th engine, and Maybach also returned as Chief Engineer, obtaining 30,000 Goldmark worth of shares through his original contract with Gottlieb Daimler.

Maybach patented more automobile inventions including:

• a revolutionary cooling system, tubular radiator with fan
• the honeycomb radiator

Around this time though Maybach suffered two setbacks. His teenage second son, Adolf, suffered a schizophrenia attack and spent the rest of his life in various mental institutions (In 1940 he was murdered by the Nazis as part of the Euthanasia Program). In 1900, Gottlieb Daimler died of heart disease.

Between April and October 1900, Maybach designed a completely new kind of car inspired by racing which would be called the Mercedes 35 hp when released in 1902. It featured:

• long wheelbase
• wide track
• low height
• unheard of power from its 35 hp engine allowing it to reach 40 mph (64,4 km/h).

Emil Jellinek, a successful Austrian dealer and racing driver on the French Riviera who greatly admired Maybach's work, promised to buy a shipment of 36 automobiles for 550,000 goldmarks if Maybach could design a great race car for him following his specifications.

The prototype was finished in December 1900 and, in 1901 went on to have a string of racing successes. Its engine was baptized Daimler - Mercedes (Spanish for mercy) after Mercedes Jellinek, Emil's 10 year old daughter. European high society bought the car in large numbers making it the commercial success that convinced the company directors there was a future in automobiles. Production increased greatly and DMG rapidly increased in size and number of employees. DMG officially registered the Mercedes trademark in June 1902.

In 1902, a fire destroyed DMG's Cannstatt facilities and the company moved to Stuttgart - Untertürkheim. Maybach continued with his innovations:

• a 6-cylinder / 70 hp engine (1903 – 04)
• a pioneer aircraft engine: a high speed racing engine of 120 hp, with overhead inlet and exhaust valves and double ignition (1906)

DMG demoted him to an "Inventor's Office" causing him to leave the company again in 1907. DMG replaced him with Paul Daimler. That same year, the German Engineers Association (VDI) recognized Wilhelm Maybach as an honorary member.

In 1900, Maybach had had his first contact with Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin who sought to improve the engines of the Zeppelin LZ1 airship. Maybach built some engines for him based on sketches of a 150 hp unit created by his son, Karl, while at DMG.

In 1908, Count Zeppelin attempted to sell his models LZ3 and LZ4 to the government. On 5 August, LZ4 exploded against a row of trees after attempting an emergency landing when its engines failed. This was far from being the end for the airship project as 6.25 million goldmarks were raised in a donation campaign after the accident. Count Zeppelin founded the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH, the company that built the Zeppelin airships.

Maybach had to hold off joining the new company for a while as he was still in litigation with DMG so Karl took his place. On 23 March 1909, a deal was finally signed, creating an engine subsidiary to Luftschiffbau Zeppelin at Bissingen / Enz, in Württemberg. Wilhelm Maybach was Technical Assistant and Karl was Technical Manager. Their first designs reached 72 km/h (45 mph).

Wilhelm Maybach moved his company to Friedrichshafen and renamed it Luftfahrzeug - Motoren - GmbH. Karl and Wilhem held 20% of the shares with an arrangement for Karl to inherit. They kept supplying Zeppelin, but worked on other airship engines too. In 1912, the company adopted the name Maybach - Motorenbau GmbH (Maybach Engine Construction Company). In 1916, they developed a 160 hp aircraft engine which sold 2000 units before the end of World War I. In 1916, Wilhelm Maybach was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the Technical University of Stuttgart.

After the First World War, the Versailles Treaty of 1919 prohibited airship production in Germany so Maybach turned to making high speed diesel engines for naval and railroad use, and petrol engines for automobiles, but not complete automobiles.

Many of the small automakers in Germany built their own engines for cost reasons and only the Dutch Spyker company was interested in taking Maybach engines. Wilhelm Maybach turned down the contract because he could not agree to its conditions. Instead, he opted to build complete automobiles and the factory began to produce Maybach limousines in 1921.

The first model, the Maybach W3, was shown at the 1921 Automobile Exposition in Berlin and featured

• 6-cylinder engine
• 4-wheel brakes
• new transmission system
• maximum speed of 105 km/h (65 mph)

It was produced until 1928, selling 300 units, mostly with sedan bodies; the two - seat sport version was less successful. The Maybach W5 followed, with the top speed increased to 135 km/h (84 mph); 250 units sold in 1927 and 1929.

Next Maybach produced the V12 car:

• the first 12-cylinder German automobile
• lightweight aluminum engine based on his airship work
• light alloy pistons
• 7-liter capacity
• high torque and power - 150 hp (110 kW) at 2,800 rpm

Only a few dozen were sold due to the German postwar economic crisis. In 1930, its successor, the DS7 - Zeppelin, also featured a 12-cylinder engine of 7 liters.

In August 1929, the Zeppelin LZ-127 used five Maybach - V12 petrol engines of 550 hp (410 kW) each.

Neither Wilhelm nor Karl owned a Maybach automobile. Wilhelm never even owned a car. "He, who created the basics for the modern automobilism, rarely utilized a car for his personal purposes. He walked or took the tram. Although he could have afforded one, he did not own a car."

By 1924 DMG was suffering from the post war economic crisis and under pressure from the banks, it began the process that would result in a merger with Karl Benz's Benz & Cie., Rheinische Gasmotorenfabrik Mannheim in 1926 to form Daimler - Benz AG.

Wilhelm Maybach died at the age of 83 in Stuttgart on 29 December 1929.

• Wilhelm Maybach was accepted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 1996.
• Three technical Schools in Germany are named Wilhelm Maybach: Stuttgart, Heilbronn, and Berlin - Spandau.
• In 2002, Daimler AG began to produce models under the Maybach name.
• In 2005, in honor of his grandfather Karl and his great - grandfather Wilhelm, Ulrich Schmid - Maybach founded the Wilhelm and Karl Maybach Foundation.