In the beginning, Gottlieb created the lorry
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Steve Gray takes a spin in the latest of Daimler-Benz' trucks (and they don't come much later than 1898) and finds it a fiery little number
VHEN Gottlieb Daimler set to nd built the world's first lorry ,ack in 1896, he can scarcely ave anticipated the staggering ffect it would have on the lives f his fellow men, both then and ow.
Doubtless there are many -ansport managers, mechanics, rivers and even operators who fish he hadn't bothered, but the )rry is here and here to stay.
York Trailers once coined the uccinct phrase "If you've got it, truck brbught it", and it's never lore true than today. Despite ie protestations of the anti)rry brigade and the environ)entalists, everyone's life style nd standard of living would be great deal worse without the Drnmercial vehicle.
But back in 1896, just ten years fter Carl Benz had introduced Ie world's first true automobile, iings were a lot different.
The lorry was then a novelty 'filch wasn't seriously expected challenge the then estabshed mode of goods transport the horse and cart. It was a D sy machine belching smoke id generally upsetting horse-awn traffic.
The very first lorry had a 3tbed body and could carry a ayload of nearly 1,500kg Ocwt). With an unladen weight
1,200kg (24cwt) it pottered ong at a racy 12kmh (7mph). Perhaps ironically, the lorry amber one was delivered to the -itish Motor syndicate from the annheim factory. The shape of ings to come?
After various changes in enne location — the first had its )wer plant at the back of the laessis while other designs aced it under the seats — 3imler settled in 1898 for a Dnt engine mounted over the Dnt axle with a short stubby in net.
This very vehicle, which was lilt in 1898, delivered to the 3imler agent in Vienna, and a ar later sold to a watchmaker Radaun near Vienna, has surred and occupies pride of place in the Daimler-Benz museum in Stuttgart. Here it is lovingly looked after by the Specialist, an elderly man in a white coat , and the Assistant Specialist.
Originally it was supplied as a passenger-carrying vehicle and only later converted to carry goods. A statement from Gottlieb Daimler, the engineer hienself, said: "These vehicles can be fitted out so that the upper part can be removed and two seats put in its place. The business vehicle is thus converted into a brake which can be used for short drives and in general for carrying passengers."
Though it was designed so long ago — the first plane was yet to fly and the Titanic had not been thought of — the Daimler lorry was remarkably advanced. It had a two-cylinder, upright, inline, water-cooled, four-stroke petrol engine which revelled in the name Phoenix.
Perhaps earlier experiments had resulted in fires, and the Phoenix obviously represented the state of the art by not bursting into flames!
The two cylinders had a capacity of 1.53 lit (93cuin) and, with a bore and stroke of 90 and 120mm (3.5 and 4.7in) respectively, it produced a fantastic 5.5hp at the frighteningly high revs of 750!
This massive power was harnessed to a toothed gear fourspeed manual gearbox with build-in differential. Final drive was by means of chain drive, which contrasted with previous practice where belt drive was used.
Turning back to the Phoenix power unit, it had features which were innovative for those days.
Perhaps the most revolutionary was the use of a low-tension magneto ignition which allowed accurate ignition adjustment according to the position of the piston and the exact control of ignition timing.
Though there was no controllable accelerator — once the en gine was started it ran at maximum revs — a centrifugal governor operated the speed limiter which prevented the engine from over-revving.
To vaporise the mixture, an injection nozzle carburretter was fitted.
As the power had been increased on this later vehicle, it was necessary to make changes to the cooling system. Daimler set about making a brass radiator which consisted of 1,676 brass tubes, 150mm (5.9in) long and 7mm (0.27in) in diameter.
Cool air is drawn through these and it reduces the temperature of the cooling water which passes through the tubes. A total cooling area of 5.4m (58sqft) was thus available and coped with the extra power Daimler had obtained from his power unit, while at the same time requiring a relatively small amount of cooling water.
For the chassis, Daimler used an oak frame to which a subframe made of two steel tubes was attached. This was connected by "paw"-shaped supports carrying the radiator and engine at the front and the gearbox a little way behind the middle of the vehicle.
Full elliptical leaf springs — a direct lift from the horse-drawn vehicles of the day — were used with brass bushes. No such luxuries as pneumatic tyres were available then, so Diamler ran his vehicle on iron-shod wheels, which, to absorb some of the road shocks, had a layer of jute between the tyre and rim.
Braking was, to say the least, somewhat primitive. There was a transmission countershaft brake which, on full depression
of the clutch pedal, operated 01 the drive train, and a handbraki for the rear wheels, controllei by a single lever on the outsid of the vehicle. When it was bui the Daimler cost around 6,60 Reichmarks.
To see how the vehicle is tc day, I went to Stuttgart to try out. I was told the the SpecialiE and his Assistant would b along to start the vehicle.
They duly arrived in their Mei cedes estate car, complete wit a kit of tools, and set to work t start the vehicle up. There is n actual fuel pump, so the fuE tank had to first be pressurise using a hand pump mounted o the dashboard.
After a goodly number pumps, an expression of dee concern came over th Specialist. He was clearly Ion: ing pressure somewhere alon the line.
Moving to the fuel tank, sei sibly mounted at the rear, h quickly discovered the cause the problem — an ill-fitting ga ket on the fuel-tank cap. Aft much deliberation it was d cided to make a new one fro cork. This was a task whic could safely be left to the A sistant Specialist, Once this tricky piece of repair ork had been accomplished, )d the pressure built up, the Jecialist got down to the real Asiness of getting the vehicle tderway. He took the plug )eter from its holder — this old !hide had a glow-plug type of nition — liberally sprayed it, id lit it with benzine.
By placing it around the ex)sed end of the glow plugs in rn, and opening the taps beWV them, which released fuel, was able to light what in fect became mini-Bunsen irners. These then heated the )w plugs.
Once they had reached the reiired temperature, the lecialist started to swing the I vehicle's starting handle. ter a fair number of revoluns, accompanied by a lot of luttering and coughing (not ly from the vehicle), the imler burst into life.
ctually, "burst" is overstat I the case. There is no throttle itrol on the vehicle, so it just is at its maximum revs all the ie. As these are only 750 per flute it doesn't exactly earn.
The Specialist, I was told, uld drive the vehicle to the magnificent Daimler-Benz test track and then I would be allowed to have a go.
The journey there was more or less uneventful except when the lorry reached a slight gradient up to the track. It proved just too much for it, and the Assistant Specialist and his estate car were brought in to give a tow. Once on the track a little tuition was in order before I was let loose on the Daimler.
I must be dressed properly, they decided, so I found myself wearing a vast and heavy leather coat — which made me look like some sort of Gestapo agent — and a flat hat with a muffler round my neck. All this would have been fine had it not been a baking hot day.
The Specialist beckoned me to sit down next to him so that he could run through a few salient points on the operation of the vehicle. This operation was complicated somewhat by his lack of command of the English language, and my total inability to understand German. So we reverted to the time-ho-noured method of gesticulation, accompanied by a few words of pidgin English/German.
Curiously, the Daimler has right-hand steering — obviously that crazy Continental habit of driving on the wrong side of the road was a later development.
But once I was allowed to take the wheel, I found it really quite easy to control the old machine. However gear changing proved to be a little tricky at first.
Unfortunately, the Specialist had not been able to point out that the vehicle had a transmission brake operated by full depression of the clutch pedal. So every time I tried to change up a gear I managed to stop the truck. Eventually after a lot of violent armand leg-waving by the Specialist, I cottoned on to my mistake and got gearchanging down to a fine art.
The four-speed straighttoothed gearbox proved to be remarkably slick in its operation in spite of lacking such sophistication as synchromesh. Its sidemounted gearshift is of the gate type and extremely positive. After a few runs up and down I was beginning to enjoy myself, then disaster struck — the motor cut.
Perhaps it wasn't entirely my fault, as the revs seemed to have been dropping for a while. Nevertheless, it was undeniable that the fire had gone out and the machine wouldn't go.
Both the Specialist and Assistant Specialist rushed over with concerned looks on their faces. Had I, I wondered, done some irreparable damage to this historic vehicle? Would I be dragged from the driver's seat and lynched by an angry mob of Daimler-Benz workers, incensed that one Englishman in ten minutes had done what 82 years couldn't?
In spite of my concern especially when I caught sight of a large spanner in the Specialist's right hand — no harm came to me. They were, in fact, more anxious about the lorry.
All the engine cover flaps were thrown open and the Specialist peered anxiously into the engine bay. After a few minutes deliberation he suddenly called to his assistant, "Das Hammeren". Whereupon the assistant rushed over brandishing a large hammer.
Now I'm for it, I thought, they obviously didn't want blood on their spanners -too difficult to get out of the crevices — and besides a hammer would be more efficient. But no, the Specialist set about the internal workings of the Daimler.
At last it all became clear. The hot weather and high-speed test runs I had conducted proved too much for the inlet valve, which had stuck open.
Hammering the engine was designed to free it off. But it was all to no avail, the valve couldn't be freed and there would be no more driving that day.
As a kind of consolation, my German hosts took me on a guided tour of the impressive museum at Stuttgart. Here were examples of Daimler-Banz products spanning nearly a century.
The tristar emblem, I was told, showed that Daimler-Benz powered vehicles on land, sea and in the air. Indeed there are planes and cars from every decade, even vehicles built by other makers which had Daimler power, such as a 1897 Panhard and Lavassor.
One of the world's first selfpropelled taxis is there too, looking rather like a horsedrawn vehicle which has lost its horse.
One amusing fact emerged from my tour of the museum and that was the origin of the word "chauffeur". Evidently in the days when engines needed their glow plugs preheated, rich people employed a man to go down in the morning to heat them. Thus he was called a chauffeur, or warmer-upper.