For France and for the world, 1889 was quite the year. Gustave Eiffel's wondrous wrought iron tower had opened to an awed public. Paris held its World Exposition. The electric light bulb was a new innovation and was used to illuminate many of the exhibition stands, including that of Gottlieb Daimler who mounted thirty light bulbs around his exhibit, lighting them from a mobile mini power station equipped with Daimler engine and electrical generator. The automobile he was keen to display was his four-wheeled "wire wheel car." Although it attracted considerable interest, the car failed to strike many visitors as sensational.

And yet only three years earlier, Daimler, aided and abetted by the engineer Wilhelm Maybach, had built the world's first four-wheeled automobile - a carriage equipped with internal combustion engine and steering device. This was also the year in which Carl Benz presented his Patent Motor Car, which was on display at the Exposition. Gottlieb Daimler's car featured a number of ground-breaking innovations including a two-cylinder gasoline-powered V-engine and a geared manual transmission. That same engine also powered two boats brought by Daimler to Paris in which he proved the drive system's viability for watercraft on the River Seine. Interestingly, as the internal combustion engine was being refined, there were many demands from builders of small pleasure boats who, until then, could only power their vessels with steam.