First Use in Transportation
Otto and his manager Gottlieb Daimler had a major disagreement on the future direction of the Otto engine. While Otto wanted to produce large engines for stationary applications Daimler wanted to produce engines small enough to be used in transportation. After a period of disagreement Daimler left Otto's employ and took Wilhelm Maybach with him. In 1883 Daimler and Maybach created a .5 hp engine that was small and efficient. In order to evade the patents that Otto held on the engine design, a pretense was found concerning a patent issued to Beau De Rochas in 1862, the same year that Otto failed to create his four cycle engine the first time. Those who were jealous of the Otto patents (there were 25 patents) had 1 patent overturned in Germany largely because the court failed to understand the significance of Otto's layered charge system which overcame the problems of explosive combustion which destroyed all engine designs previously.
Daimler always referred to his design as an explosion engine, to contrast it against Otto's engine and was able to evade paying royalties to Otto. In 1885 he and Maybach created an engine called the "Grandfather Clock" engine and built a two wheeled frame around it. This became the first Otto engined vehicle. Daimler's fourteen year old son Adolf was the first person to ride on this motorized bicycle which is the first internal combustion engined motor vehicle. The 1885 Daimler/Maybach Petroleum Reitwagen (Riding Car) was the first motorcycle (and the first motor vehicle) using an internal combustion engine. While Deutz continued to produce large stationary engines Daimler moved onto boats, airships, locomotives, autmobiles, trucks, and other transportation uses. Deutz is the world's oldest engine producer. Daimler, which became Daimler-Benz, is the world's oldest automobile manufacturer.
Daimler-Benz produced this video for the 125th anniversary of the creation of the first motor vehicle which Daimler called the "Petroleum Reitwagen." It used a hot tube ignition specifically because the electrical systems of that era were unreliable. This engine ran on the fuel Ligroin, as did all vehicles until well past the year 1905. Daimler and Maybach founded a company known as Daimler Motorenwerkes Gesellschaft which later merged with Benz to form Daimler-Benz, known also as Mercedes-Benz. The Damiler/Maybach Reitwagen reproduction being run
Today Otto's company Deutz is one of the largest makers of a heavy duty vehicles in the world. Daimler-Benz is one of the largest and most respected makers of luxury automobiles in the world. Virtually all of the world's makers of automobiles produce vehicles using Otto cycle engines which are so ubiquitous as to be referred to as gasoline engines.
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