Although various forms of internal combustion engines were developed before the 19th century,
their use was hindered until the commercial drilling and production of petroleum began
in the mid-1850s.
By the late 19th century, engineering advances led to their widespread adoption in a variety
of applications.
Timeline of development Various scientists and engineers contributed
to the development of internal combustion engines:
Prior to 1860
3rd century: The earliest evidence of a crank and connecting rod mechanism dates to the
3rd century AD Hierapolis sawmill in Asia Minor as part of the Roman Empire.
5th century: Roman engineers documented several crankshaft-connecting rod machines used for
their sawmills.
9th century: The crank appears in the mid-9th century in several of the hydraulic devices
described by the Banū Mūsā brothers in their Book of Ingenious Devices.
In 1206, al-Jazari invented an early crankshaft, which he incorporated with a crank-connecting
rod mechanism in his twin-cylinder pump.
Like the modern crankshaft, Al-Jazari's mechanism consisted of a wheel setting several crank
pins into motion, with the wheel's motion being circular and the pins moving back-and-forth
in a straight line.
The crankshaft described by al-Jazari transforms continuous rotary motion into a linear reciprocating
motion, 17th century: Christiaan Huygens designs gunpowder
to drive water pumps, to supply 3000 cubic meters of water/day for the Versailles palace
gardens, essentially creating the first idea of a rudimentary internal combustion piston
engine.
1780s: Alessandro Volta built a toy electric pistol in which an electric spark exploded
a mixture of air and hydrogen, firing a cork from the end of the gun.
1791: John Barber receives British patent #1833 for A Method for Rising Inflammable
Air for the Purposes of Producing Motion and Facilitating Metallurgical Operations.
In it he describes a turbine.
1794: Robert Street built a compressionless engine whose principle of operation would
dominate for nearly a century.
1807: Nicéphore Niépce installed his 'moss, coal-dust and resin' fueled Pyréolophore
internal combustion engine in a boat and powered up the river Saône in France.
A patent was subsequently granted by Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte on 20 July 1807.
1807: Swiss engineer François Isaac de Rivaz built an internal combustion engine powered
by a hydrogen and oxygen mixture, and ignited by electric spark.
1823: Samuel Brown patented the first internal combustion engine to be applied industrially.
It was compressionless and based on what Hardenberg calls the "Leonardo cycle", which, as the
name implies, was already out of date at that time.
1824: French physicist Sadi Carnot established the thermodynamic theory of idealized heat
engines.
1826 April 1: American Samuel Morey received a patent for a compressionless "Gas or Vapor
Engine." 1833: Lemuel Wellman Wright, UK patent 6525,
table-type gas engine.
Double-acting gas engine, first record of water-jacketed cylinder.
1838: A patent was granted to William Barnett.
According to Dugald Clerk, this was the first recorded use of in-cylinder compression.
1853-57: Eugenio Barsanti and Felice Matteucci invented and patented an engine using the
free-piston principle that was possibly the first 4-cycle engine.
1856: in Florence at Fonderia del Pignone, Pietro Benini realized a working prototype
of the Italian engine supplying 5 HP.
In subsequent years he developed more powerful engines—with one or two pistons—which
served as steady power sources, replacing steam engines.
1857: Eugenio Barsanti and Felice Matteucci describe the principles of the free piston
engine where the vacuum after the explosion allows atmospheric pressure to deliver the
power stroke.
Otto and Langen were the first to make a marketable engine based on this concept 10 years later.
1860-1920 1860: Belgian Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir produced
a gas-fired internal combustion engine similar in appearance to a horizontal double-acting
steam engine, with cylinders, pistons, connecting rods, and flywheel in which the gas essentially
took the place of the steam.
This was the first internal combustion engine to be produced in numbers.
1861 The earliest confirmed patent of the 4-cycle engine, by Alphonse Beau de Rochas.
A year earlier, Christian Reithmann made an engine which may have been the same, but it's
unknown since his patent wasn't clear on this point.
1862: The German Nikolaus Otto begins to manufacture a gas engine.
Actually, it was a no compression Lenoir engine with a free piston.
1863: Nikolaus Otto, patented in England and other countries his first atmospheric gas
engine.
Otto was the first to build and sell this type of compressionless engine designed with
an indirect-acting free-piston, whose great efficiency won the support of Eugen Langen
and then most of the market, which at that time was mainly for small stationary engines
fuelled by lighting gas.
Eugen Langen collaborated with Otto in the design and they began to manufacture it in
1864.
1865: Pierre Hugon started production of the Hugon engine, similar to the Lenoir engine,
but with better economy, and more reliable flame ignition.
1867: Otto and Langen exhibited their free piston engine at the Paris Exhibition in 1867,
and they won the greatest award.
It had less than half the gas consumption of the Lenoir or Hugon engines.
1870: In Vienna, Siegfried Marcus put the first mobile gasoline engine on a handcart.
1872: In America George Brayton invented Brayton's Ready Motor and went into commercial production,
this used constant pressure combustion, and was the first commercial liquid fuelled internal
combustion engine.
1876: Nikolaus Otto, working with Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach, started the genesis
of the four-cycle engine.
The German courts, however, did not hold his patent to cover all in-cylinder compression
engines or even the four-stroke cycle, and after this decision, in-cylinder compression
became universal.
1878: Dugald Clerk designed the first two-stroke engine with in-cylinder compression.
He patented it in England in 1881.
1879: Karl Benz, working independently, was granted a patent for his internal combustion
engine, a reliable two-stroke gas engine, based on the same technology as De Rochas's
design of the four-stroke engine.
Later, Benz designed and built his own four-stroke engine that was used in his automobiles, which
were developed in 1885, patented in 1886, and became the first automobiles in production.
1882: James Atkinson invented the Atkinson cycle engine.
Atkinson’s engine had one power phase per revolution together with different intake
and expansion volumes, potentially making it more efficient than the Otto cycle, but
certainly avoiding Otto's patent.
1884: British engineer Edward Butler constructed the first petrol internal combustion engine.
Butler invented the spark plug, ignition magneto, coil ignition and spray jet carburetor, and
was the first to use the word petrol. 1885: German engineer Gottlieb Daimler received
a German patent for a supercharger 1889: Félix Millet begins development of
the first vehicle to be powered by a rotary engine in transportation history.
1891: Herbert Akroyd Stuart built his oil engine, leasing rights to Hornsby of England
to build them.
They built the first cold-start compression-ignition engines.
In 1892, they installed the first ones in a water pumping station.
In the same year, an experimental higher-pressure version produced self-sustaining ignition
through compression alone.
1892: Rudolf Diesel developed his Carnot heat engine type motor .
1887: Gustaf de Laval introduces the de Laval nozzle
1893 February 23: Rudolf Diesel received a patent for his compression ignition engine.
1896: Karl Benz invented the boxer engine, also known as the horizontally opposed engine,
or the flat engine, in which the corresponding pistons reach top dead center at the same
time, thus balancing each other in momentum.
1898: Fay Oliver Farwell designs the prototype of the line of Adams-Farwell automobiles,
all to be powered with three or five cylinder rotary internal combustion engines.
1900: Rudolf Diesel demonstrated the diesel engine in the 1900 Exposition Universelle
using peanut oil fuel.
1900: Wilhelm Maybach designed an engine built at Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft—following
the specifications of Emil Jellinek—who required the engine to be named Daimler-Mercedes
after his daughter.
In 1902 automobiles with that engine were put into production by DMG.
1903 - Konstantin Tsiolkovsky begins a series of theoretical papers discussing the use of
rocketry to reach outer space.
A major point in his work is liquid fueled rockets.
1903: Ægidius Elling builds a gas turbine using a centrifugal compressor which runs
under its own power.
By most definitions, this is the first working gas turbine.
1905 Alfred Buchi patents the turbocharger and starts producing the first examples.
1903-1906: The team of Armengaud and Lemale in France build a complete gas turbine engine.
It uses three separate compressors driven by a single turbine.
Limits on the turbine temperatures allow for only a 3:1 compression ratio, and the turbine
is not based on a Parsons-like "fan", but a Pelton wheel-like arrangement.
The engine is so inefficient, at about 3% thermal efficiency, that the work is abandoned.
1908: New Zealand inventor Ernest Godward started a motorcycle business in Invercargill
and fitted the imported bikes with his own invention – a petrol economiser.
His economisers worked as well in cars as they did in motorcycles.
1908: Hans Holzwarth starts work on extensive research on an "explosive cycle" gas turbine,
based on the Otto cycle.
This design burns fuel at a constant volume and is somewhat more efficient.
By 1927, when the work ended, he has reached about 13% thermal efficiency.
1908: René Lorin patents a design for the ramjet engine.
1916: Auguste Rateau suggests using exhaust-powered compressors to improve high-altitude performance,
the first example of the turbocharger. 1920-1980
1920: William Joseph Stern reports to the Royal Air Force that there is no future for
the turbine engine in aircraft.
He bases his argument on the extremely low efficiency of existing compressor designs.
Due to Stern's eminence, his paper is so convincing there is little official interest in gas turbine
engines anywhere, although this does not last long.
1921: Maxime Guillaume patents the axial-flow gas turbine engine.
It uses multiple stages in both the compressor and turbine, combined with a single very large
combustion chamber.
1923: Edgar Buckingham at the United States National Bureau of Standards publishes a report
on jets, coming to the same conclusion as W.J.
Stern, that the turbine engine is not efficient enough.
In particular he notes that a jet would use five times as much fuel as a piston engine.
1925: The Hesselman engine is introduced by Swedish engineer Jonas Hesselman represented
the first use of direct gasoline injection on a spark-ignition engine.
1925: Wilhelm Pape patents a constant-volume engine design.
1926: Alan Arnold Griffith publishes his groundbreaking paper Aerodynamic Theory of Turbine Design,
changing the low confidence in jet engines.
In it he demonstrates that existing compressors are "flying stalled", and that major improvements
can be made by redesigning the blades from a flat profile into an airfoil, going on to
mathematically demonstrate that a practical engine is definitely possible and showing
how to build a turboprop. 1926 - Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled
rocket 1927: Aurel Stodola publishes his "Steam and
Gas Turbines" - basic reference for jet propulsion engineers in the USA.
1927: A testbed single-shaft turbo-compressor based on Griffith's blade design is tested
at the Royal Aircraft Establishment. 1929: Frank Whittle's thesis on jet engines
is published 1930: Schmidt patents a pulse-jet engine in
Germany.
1935: Hans von Ohain creates plans for a turbojet engine and convinces Ernst Heinkel to develop
a working model.
Along with a single mechanic von Ohain develops the worlds first turbojet on a test stand.
1936: French engineer René Leduc, having independently re-discovered René Lorin's
design, successfully demonstrates the world's first operating ramjet.
1937: The first successful run of Sir Frank Whittle's gas turbine for jet propulsion.
March, 1937: The Heinkel HeS 1 experimental hydrogen fueled centrifugal jet engine is
tested at Hirth. 27 August 1939: Flight of the world's first
turbojet power aircraft.
Hans von Ohain's Heinkel He 178 V1 pioneer turbojet aircraft prototype makes its first
flight, powered by an He S 3 von Ohain engine.
15 May 1941: The Gloster E.28/39 becomes the first British jet-engined aircraft to fly,
using a Power Jets W.1 turbojet designed by Frank Whittle and others.
1942: Max Bentele discovers in Germany that turbine blades can break if vibrations are
in its resonance range, a phenomenon already known in the USA from the steam turbine experience.
July 18, 1942: The Messerschmitt Me 262 first jet engine flight
1946: Sam Baylin develops the Baylin Engine a three cycle internal combustion engine with
rotary pistons.
A crude but complex example of the future Wankel engine.
In the early 1950s engineers for The Texas Company—i.e. now Chevron—developed a four
stroke engine with a fuel injector that employed what was called the Texco Combustion Process,
which unlike normal four stroke gasoline engines which used a separate valve for the intake
of the air-gasoline mixture, with the T.C.P.
engine the intake valve with a built in special shroud delivers the air to the cylinder in
a tornado type fashion at then the fuel is injected and ignited by a spark plug.
The inventors claimed their engine could burn on almost any petroleum based fuel of any
octane and even some alcohol based fuels—e.g. kerosine, benzine, motor oil, tractor oil,
etc.—without the pre-combustion knock and the complete burning of the fuel inject into
the cylinder.
While development was well advanced by 1950, there is no records of the T.C.P.
engine being used commercially.
1950s development begins by US firms of the Free-piston engine concept which is a crankless
internal combustion engine.
1954: Felix Wankel's first working prototype DKM 54 of the Wankel engine
1980 to present 1986 Benz Gmbh files for patent protection
for a form of Scotch yoke engine and begins development of same.
Development subsequently abandoned.
2004 Hyper-X first scram-jet to maintain altitude 2004 Toyota Motor Corp files for patent protection
for new form of Scotch yoke engine.
2014 Ford Motor Company files patent for compact turbine engine.
Engine starting
Early internal combustion engines were started by hand cranking.
Various types of starter motor were later developed.
These included: An auxiliary petrol engine for starting a
larger petrol or diesel engine.
The Hucks starter is an example Cartridge starters, such as the Coffman engine
starter, which used a device like a blank shotgun cartridge.
These were popular for aircraft engines Pneumatic starters
Hydraulic starters Electric starters
Electric starters are now almost universal for small and medium-sized engines, while
pneumatic starters are used for large engines.
Modern vs. historical piston engines The first piston engines did not have compression,
but ran on an air-fuel mixture sucked or blown in during the first part of the intake stroke.
The most significant distinction between modern internal combustion engines and the early
designs is the use of compression and, in particular, in-cylinder compression.
See also Bertha Benz Memorial Route, commemorating
the world's first long distance journey with an automobile propelled by an internal combustion
engine in 1888.
Harry Ricardo Timeline of heat engine technology
Timeline of motor vehicle brands References
Notes
Further reading Sloss, Robert.
"The Children Of The Gas-Engine: The Revolution In Speed And In Convenience In Transportation
- Automobiles, Motor-Cycles, Motor-Boats, Aeroplanes And Other Queer Craft That Ten
Years Have Brought".
The World's Work: A History of Our Time XXI: 13869–13877.
Retrieved 2009-07-10.