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Updated: 14 May 2008, 15:30 ET (Created: 08 Feb 2001{?})
[Ref: This is daimchry.html (URL http://home.att.net/~Berliner-Ultrasonics/daimchry.html)]

S. Berliner, III's

DaimlerChrysler Page

Consultant in Ultrasonic Processing
"changing materials with high-intensity sound"
Technical and Historical Writer, Oral Historian
Popularizer of Science and Technology
Rail, Auto, Air, Ordnance, and Model Enthusiast
Light-weight Linguist, Lay Minister, and Putative Philosopher

DaimlerChrysler

This site has now been visited

times since the counter was installed.

A cover page to tie in my Chrysler and Mercedes pages, only.

The Chrysler page has Continuation Pages 1, 2, and 3

(with the Walter P. Chrysler story).

Chrysler and Mercedes inked their $3billion+ merger and DaimlerChrysler AG/Corporation began business on 17 Nov 98 and started trading combined shares on 18 Nov 98; two of my most favo(u)rite cars!

By Jan 2001 it sure looked like the partnership was going sour!

It did - a quick chronology of the "un-merger":

(24 Feb 08)
04 Oct 2007 - DaimlerChrysler AG renamed as Daimler AG.
03 Aug 2007 - transaction completed.
14 May 2007 - Chrysler interests sold off to Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. by Daimler-Chrysler.

Chrysler LLC, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Mich., is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chrysler Holdings LLC, which in turn is owned 80.1% by Cerberus Capital Management LP and 19.9% by Daimler AG. Chrysler LLC consists of Chrysler Motors Company LLC and its subsidiaries — Chrysler Canada Inc. and Chrysler de Mexico S.A. de C.V., as well as other international automotive affiliates.

So much for that merger! With that, this page is now CLOSED! [24 Feb 08]

ADTRANZ

Adtranz was formed in January 1996, merging the rail transportation activities of the electrical engineering group of ABB Ltd. and Daimler-Benz AG. Thus, Daimler-Chrysler was in the railroad business! However, on 04 Aug 2000, DaimlerChrysler announced an agreement to sell its 100% shareholding in DaimlerChrysler Rail Systems GmbH (Adtranz) to Bombardier Inc.; thus apparently taking DaimlerChrysler right back out of the railroad business [DaimlerChrysler Rail Systems (North America) Inc.'s website no longer responds]!

FIRST I.C. LOCOS! - Gottlieb Daimler built an internal-combustion-powered locomotive ca. 1890! Actually, according to the DaimlerChrysler archives, it is quite hard to give exact dates, because Daimler's old commission book entries do not reveal the date of delivery (or production) in some cases and, moreover, it is sometimes very hard to tell what kind of vehicle is described in these tramway- or railway-related commission book entries.

It is quite clear, however, that Daimler operated his first miniature railway waggonet on 27 September 1887 on the occasion of the Cannstatt People's Festival. A bigger tramway waggonet with a track of 600 mm (~2') was operated in 1889 in Bremen in Northern Germany and in 1890 in the Prater Festival Park in Vienna. In 1892, a different construction was used in the Prater Park: a two-axle miniature tramway locomotive with a two-cylinder V-engine and non-motorised tramway wagons. Daimler's commission book seems to indicate that the Prater tramway locomotive was delivered on 18 January 1892. There are, however, two earlier entries - one of 22 December 1888 and one of 05 August 1891, both of them delivered within Germany. Unfortunately, DaimlerChrysler does not know if these locomotives are the same as the one for the Prater tramway, and this is the reason they used the phrase "about 1890" as the date for the first motorised locomotive. I have long known of, and had a copy of (but misplaced), an 1896 display poster from Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft of Cannstatt which illustrates all the products of the company at the time, a stationary motor, several boats, many road vehicles, and four rail vehicles, including a tiny boxcab Locomotive, a Draisine (like an open section car), a Waggonnet (a motorized open car with two benches back-to-back), and a Trambahnwagen (a streetcar). Here, enlarged from that poster, "Bauprogamme im Jahre 1896" (1896 Product Catalog) is the tiny boxcab locomotive:

Concerning the tramway waggonets as used in Bremen and Vienna, Daimler applied for a German Patent for a "device for braking and accelerating of petrol-engined locomotives" on 14 June 1890. The Patent (No. 57203) was granted on 25 June 1891. It is also interesting to note the French spelling of "locomotive", changed to "lokomotiv" in the Third Reich.

[The foregoing information is provided through the great courtesy of the DaimlerChrysler Archives, to whom sincere appreciation has already been expressed and is seconded here!]

There is also a lot of automotive material on my AUTOMOTIVE, ORDNANCE, and HISTORY pages.

Also, if you like automotive history, see the links on the Dudgeon page.

Cyclops fans; see Cyclops on my Automotive page!

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S. Berliner, III

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