Daimler

“ But in reply to this it must be remembered that the workable gas engine had been invented as early as 1860, and that the Otto engine, of which the Daimler is a modification, was patented as early as 1876. These developments, it will be noted, took place at just about the time when the new interest in the automobile had been aroused, as evidenced by the repressive British legislation just referred to. It can be but little in question that had the early interest in the British automobile been maintained, inventive genius would long since have provided a suitable motor. ”

“ The first automobile imported into the United States was a Benz car brought to the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. Up to 1917 the Benz car was an entrant in most automobile speed contests.
While Benz was perfecting the gasoline motor in its attachment to the tricycle, Gottlieb Daimler, another German, was producing, in 1885, the motor-cycle. Daimler had devoted himself70 sedulously to the problem of reducing the weight and increasing the power of the gas engine, in order to adapt it to high efficiency road vehicles. He invented the hot tube ignition to take the place of ignition by flame. ”

“ The responsibility as the actual "inventor" can probably be no more definitely placed. However, had it not been for two developments, neither of them immediately related to the motor car, we should never have had this efficient method of transportation. The real "fathers" of the automobile are Gottlieb Daimler, the German who made the first successful gasoline engine, and Charles Goodyear, the American who discovered the secret of vulcanized rubber. ”

“ Gottlieb Daimler’s engine marked a great advance in the production of a source of motive power, for its efficiency was large as compared with its total weight, whilst the simplicity of its fuel system brought it within the scope of the person of average mechanical instincts and intelligence, for, even in its early days, the internal-combustion motor did not demand that its user should possess an intimate knowledge of engineering. ”

“ The able assistance of William Maybach brought further credit to the company, particularly in view of the aspirating carbureter which, with such details as clutch and transmission mechanism, helped to perfect the Cannstadt automobiles. In the latter nineties the prominence of the Daimler Works as vehicle makers, distinguished from motor makers, again began to be noticed and soon their now famous Mercedes cars appeared. In recent years these machines have made remarkable records in races and all other branches of the sport. ”

“ Speyde won the long route—and booked a bet of five pounds.
With a good deal of laughing, and joking, the competitors started together, but within a quarter of a mile, the cars had separated, the Rolls-Royce to take a high road, more or less bordering the railway, the Daimler to plunge into what seemed to be the very heart and soul of the country. ”

“ The car should be powerful enough to draw an extra van or two on occasion, since horses and heavy luggage may sometimes accompany the passengers. Messrs. Dick, Kerr, and Company have built a car, which, when loaded with its complement of passengers, weighs about sixteen tons. The motive power is supplied by two four-cylinder petrol engines of the Daimler type, each giving 36 h.p. These are suspended on a special frame, independent of that which carries the coach body, so that the passengers are not troubled by the vibration of the engines, even when the vehicle is at rest. ”

“ Daimler, from 1882 onward, devoted his attention to the perfecting of the small, high-speed petrol engine for motor-car work, and owing to his efforts, together with those of other pioneer engine-builders, the motorcar was made a success. In a few years the weight of this type of engine was reduced from near on a hundred pounds per horse-power to less than a tenth of that weight, but considerable further improvement had to be made before an engine suitable for use with aircraft was evolved. ”

“ Many of these early inventions used coal tar gases and gunpowder as fuel.
The first designs for an internal combustion engine of the four stroke cycle type were devised in 1862 by M. Beau de Rochas. These designs were taken in hand by a German by the name of Otto, and many experiments were conducted by him and two other Germans, Daimler and Benz, which resulted in a fairly successful engine. The Otto Gas Engine Co., of Deutz, Germany, was then formed with Daimler as general manager. ”

“ It would be grossly unfair to many excellent makers if I attempted only to support the Daimler and De Dion types of engines. Other good ones are in existence, and the next few years will doubtless see further developments. ”

“ Colonel Maitland occupied a seat behind while I sat beside Winter.
The car my friend drove was a magnificent 22-horse Daimler, built to his own specification and capable of doing considerably more than any car I had hitherto been privileged to ride upon. Of course while passing through the streets there was little chance of exhibiting its capabilities. Yet even there, the way the car glided in and out of the traffic, delicately responsive to the slightest touch of the steering wheel, was sufficient evidence of its quality to set the most nervous passenger at ease. ”

“ In addition to gas, which is applicable for stationary motors only, the fuel may be benzine of a specific gravity of sixty-eight or seventy one-hundredths, or ordinary lamp petroleum. The consumption varies according to the size of the motor, ranging [Pg 98] from thirty-six to forty-five one-hundredths kilograms per horse-power hour for vehicles, or somewhat less for boats. He adapted these light motors to vehicles of many styles, and his persistent work in this connection has made the world-wide reputation of the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, now flourishing at Cannstadt, Germany. ”

“ Car [2]
to-day as it was in 1896, and my six-horse Daimler, though only two years old, has done an enormous amount of rough work, and is in every respect as good as on the day it was made. My steam-engines have given me some trouble, though improvements are being devised with great rapidity; but in the smaller types the necessity of taking water, nominally every fifty miles but in reality much oftener than that, their fragility of construction and difficulty of management in a high wind, render them at present only useful to those who thoroughly enjoy a mechanical task. ”

“ His little engines contained nothing new in their cycles of operation, but they provided the first step in the startlingly rapid development of petrol motive power which we have seen in the last twenty years. The high speed of rotation enabled motors to be constructed giving a very large power for a very small weight.
Fig. I is a diagrammatic section of an early Daimler motor. A is the cylinder, B the piston, C the connecting rod, and D the crank, which is entirely enclosed in a casing. ”

“ Carburetted air motors for horseless carriages.—Although not to such a great extent in England, self-propelled vehicles have within the last two years come rapidly into favour on the Continent, and the success which has attended them has caused inventors and makers to concentrate their efforts on building the motors as light and as practicable as possible, as much for purposes of locomotion as for a host of other uses. We have already spoken of the Daimler motor, which is used to drive several different types of motor cars ”

“ Similarly, the estimate that France needs about 5,000 vehicles of the 3-ton type apparently does not take into account the complete mobilisation of reserves.
The manufacturing concerns which have figured most largely in the German scheme are the German Daimler, the Büssing, the N.A.G., and the Gaggenau. These four have all been participating in the scheme from the start, and about ten other manufacturers have more recently fallen into line, while in Bavaria only three manufacturers have been building to official requirements. ”

“ Each car held a 16 horse-power Daimler gasoline motor, operating two four-bladed screw propellers which were rigidly connected with the frame of the ship a little below the level of its axis. A sliding weight was run to either end of the keel as might be required to depress the head or tail, in order to rise or fall in the air. The cars were in the shape of boats, and the ship was built in a floating shed on the Lake of Constance 311 312 near Friedrichshafen. ”

“ Water; honeycomb radiator IGNITION: Make-and-break CURRENT SUPPLY: Simms-Bosch magneto LUBRICATION: Force feed MOTOR-CONTROL: Throttle and governor CLUTCH: Coil spring CHANGE GEAR: Sliding type SPEEDS: 4 forward and reverse CHANGE-GEAR CONTROL: Selective system DRIVE: Side chains
English Daimler, Type B, 30 H.P. English Daimler Co., New York
PRICE: $6,300 (chassis) BODY: Side entrance tonneau SEATS: 5 persons WEIGHT: 2,240 pounds WHEEL-BASE: 114 inches TREAD: 56 inches TIRES, FRONT: 920 × 120 mm. ”

“ New Orleans Car
Assuming that the purchaser has 500l. to lay out, for that sum he can get a six or seven horse-power carriage with the Daimler type of engine, capable of carrying four people including the driver, with a covered top for wet weather. Nay, if he is satisfied with a light and frail open carriage he could obtain one of much higher horse-power, and a speed up to between thirty and forty miles an hour but this is a mere racing machine for those who desire to travel speedily without any protection against the weather. ”

“ The car, also constructed of the same material, was rigidly attached to the hull by a lattice framework, and the whole hull structure was covered in with aluminium sheeting. A 12 horse-power Daimler benzine motor was installed in the car, driving through the medium of a belt twin aluminium screw propellers; no rudders were supplied, the steering being arranged by means of a steering screw placed centrally to the ship above the top of the car. Inflation took place at the end of 1897 by a method of pressing out air-filled fabric cells which were previously introduced into the hull. ”

“ There is no doubt that the internal-combustion engine driven by 'petrol' is still the most practical of all the various types. Whether you have a Panhard or a Mors made in France, or a Daimler or a Napier made in England, on ninety-nine days out of a hundred the vehicle will perform its work up to time, and, so far as I can speak from my own experience, you ought never to miss your train or your appointment if the car is efficiently superintended. ”

“ The cylinders of this Daimler engine were cast iron, the cylinder barrel, head, and water jacket being cast in one piece. The upper part of the barrel and the cylinder head were jacketed, but, surprisingly, the bottom 60 percent of the barrel had no cooling. The cylinders were cast in pairs and bolted to a two-piece aluminum case split at the line of the crankshaft. Ignition was make-and-break and the inlet valves were mechanically actuated. Displacement was 413 cu in. and the rpm was 1050. ”

“ A car of ancient and composite design--partly Daimler, partly Darracq, and with a suspicion of half a dozen makers' parts in the tout ensemble--the wondrous, once-discarded vehicle had been given to Peter and Malcolm Carr by a cousin of theirs. Being of a mechanical turn of mind, the two brothers soon reduced the motor to a state of servile tractability, although there was hardly a thoroughfare in Christchurch whose buildings did not bear a more or less permanent record of Juggernaut's frailties. ”

“ Instead of using the uncertain-acting flame with the inconvenient speed limitations, Daimler invented and introduced in 1883 the so-called hot-tube ignition. This consisted of a metal or porcelain tube attached to the compression space of the cylinder in such a manner that the interior of the tube was in continual communication with the compression space. A gas flame, continually burning under the tube, maintained it at a glowing red heat, so that the mixed charge of air and gas, when compressed into the tube, became fully and effectively ignited. ”

“ Since the first appearance of the Otto engine in 1876, and of the Daimler engine eight years later, the oil-engine had steadily developed in lightness and power, but no engine exactly suitable for his purpose was on the market, so he resolved to build one. An engine of four horse-power, weighing forty pounds, with a wooden airscrew five feet in diameter, was, by his calculations, amply sufficient to maintain his glider in horizontal flight. The light engine has now been so enormously improved, that it comes near to developing one horse-power for every pound of weight. ”

“ Having made such conquests on land, and rendered possible aerial feats which could scarcely have been performed by steam, the explosion motor further vindicates its versatility by its fine exploits in the water.
At the Paris Exhibition of 1889 Gottlieb Daimler, the inventor who made the petrol engine commercially valuable as an aid to locomotion, showed a small gas-driven boat, which by most visitors to the Exhibition was mistaken for an ordinary steam launch, and attracted little interest. ”

“ My experience of the Daimler 38 h.-p. car in which we toured through the greater part of Wales and the adjoining English counties was, as before, entirely satisfactory. We never had to give a thought to the running of the car in the hundreds of miles of mountainous roads we traversed.
Although the route maps accompanying the text are generally sufficient for all the ordinary needs of the touring motorist, I do not think it desirable to travel without the sheets of Bartholomew's half-an-inch-to-the-mile reduced survey maps. ”