Today in Technology History
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March 6
Two of the biggest names from the history of automobiles died on March 6.
Gottlieb Wilhelm Daimler, born in Germany in 1834, was an engineer. For several years, he worked with Nicolaus Otto, the inventor of the internal combustion engine. In 1882, he started his own company in Stuttgart, where he built the first motorcycle and the first four-wheeled automobile.
Daimler's most famous car, the Mercedes, got its name from the daughter of one of the company's major investors, who worried that the name "Daimler" sounded too Germanic and might harm sales. Daimler died on March 6, 1900, a year before the first Mercedes was sold.
Our other familiar name for the day is David Dunbar Buick. He was born in Scotland in 1854, but came to the United States when he was quite young. His great talent for tinkering and inventing was only equaled by his utter deficit of business sense. He improved the design of the internal combustion engine and he invented the windshield. However, the Buick Manufacturing Company he founded only became profitable when he gave up control of it. (It became a core company of General Motors.) Buick died on March 6, 1929, after decades of unsuccessfully dabbling in other business projects.
While Buick and Daimler never actually met one another, their companies have an interesting historical connection. At one point, the president of the Buick company was a man named Walter Chrysler. He left Buick and started his own company -- which in 1998, merged with Daimler's company to become "DaimlerChrysler."
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