History and development of Internal Combustion Combustion Engines Although various forms of internal combustion engines
17th century: Christiaan Huygens designs
were developed before the 19th century, their use was
gunpowder to drive water pumps, to supply
hindered until the commercial drilling and production of
3000
petroleum began in the mid-1850s. By the late 19th
Versailles palace gardens, essentially creating
century, engineering advances led to their widespread
the
adoption in a variety of applications.
combustion piston engine.
Various scientists and engineers contributed to the
of
a
water/day
rudimentary
for
the
internal
1780s: Alessandro Volta built a toy electric
the end of the gun.
1791: John Barber receives British patent #1833
3rd century: The earliest evidence of a crank and
for A for A Method for Rising Inflammable Air for the
connecting rod mechanism dates to the 3rd
Purposes of Producing Motion and Facilitating Facilitating
century AD Hierapolis sawmill in Asia Minor
Metallurgical Metallurgical Operations. Operations. In it he describes a
(Turkey) as part of the Roman Empire.
turbine.
5th century: Roman engineers documented several
crankshaft-connecting
rod
machines
1794: Robert Street built a compressionless engine whose principle of operation would
used for their sawmills.
idea
of
mixture of air and hydrogen, firing a cork from
Prior to 1860
first
meters
pistol in which an electric spark exploded a
development of internal combustion engines:
cubic
dominate for nearly a century.
In 1206, Al-Jazari invented an early crankshaft,
1807: Nicéphore Niépce installed his 'moss,
which he incorporated with a crank-connecting
coal-dust and resin' fueled Pyréolophore internal
rod mechanism in his twin-cylinder pump. Like
combustion engine in a boat and powered up the
the modern crankshaft, Al-Jazari's mechanism
river
consisted of a wheel setting several crank pins
subsequently granted by Emperor Napoleon
into motion, with the wheel's motion being
Bonaparte on 20 July 1807.
Saône
in
France.
A
patent
was
circular and the pins moving back-and-forth in a straight line. The crankshaft described by al-
1807: Swiss engineer François Isaac de Rivaz
Jazari transforms continuous rotary motion into
built an internal combustion engine powered by
a linear reciprocating motion, and is central to
a hydrogen and oxygen mixture, and ignited by
modern machinery such as the steam engine,
electric spark.
internal
combustion
engine
and
automatic
1823: Samuel Brown patented the first internal
controls.
combustion engine to be applied industrially. It
9th century: The crank appears in the mid-9th
was
century in several of the hydraulic devices
Hardenberg calls the "Leonardo cycle", which,
described by the Banū Mūsā brothers in their
as the name implies, was already out of date at
Book of Ingenious Ingenious Devices Devices
that time.
compressionless
and
based
on
what
1824: French physicist Sadi Carnot established
atmospheric pressure to deliver the power stroke
the thermodynamic theory of idealized heat
(British patent No 1625). Otto and Langen were
engines.
the first to make a marketable engine based on this concept 10 years later.
1826 April 1: American Samuel Morey received a patent for a compressionless "Gas or Vapor
1860-1920
Engine." 1860: Belgian Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir (1822 – 1900)
1833: Lemuel Wellman Wright, UK patent
produced a gas-fired internal combustion engine similar
6525, table-type gas engine. Double acting gas
in appearance to a horizontal double-acting steam
engine, first record of water jacketed cylinder.
engine, with cylinders, pistons, connecting rods, and flywheel in which the gas essentially took the place of
1838: A patent was granted to William Barnett
the steam. This was the first internal combustion engine
(English). According to Dugald Clerk, this was
to be produced in numbers.
the
first
recorded
use
of
in-cylinder
compression.
1861 The earliest confirmed patent of the 4cycle engine, by Alphonse Beau de Rochas. A
1853-57: Eugenio Barsanti and Felice Matteucci
year earlier, Christian Reithmann made an
invented and patented an engine using the free-
engine which may have been the same, but it's
piston principle that was possibly the first 4-
unknown since his patent wasn't clear on this
cycle engine. Early internal combustion engines were used to power
point.
first to build and sell the engine. He designed an
farm equipment similar to these models. This internal
indirect-acting
combustion engine was an integral aspect of the patent
compressionless
of Eugen Langen and then most of the market,
January 29, 1886
which at that time was mostly for small stationary engines fueled by lighting gas.
1856: in Florence at Fonderia del Pignone (now Nuovo Pignone, later a subsidiary of General
free-piston
engine whose greater efficiency won the support
for the first patented automobile, made by Karl Benz on
1862: German inventor Nikolaus Otto was the
1865: Pierre Hugon started production of the
Electric), Pietro Benini realized a working
Hugon engine, similar to the Lenoir engine, but
prototype of the Italian engine supplying 5 HP.
with better economy, and more reliable flame
In subsequent years he developed more powerful
ignition.
engines — with one or two pistons — which
1867: Otto and Langen introduced their free
served as steady power sources, replacing steam
piston engine at the Paris Exhibition. It had less
engines.
than half the gas consumption of the Lenoir or Hugon engines.
1857: Eugenio Barsanti and Felice Matteucci describe the principles of the free piston engine where the vacuum after the explosion allows
1870: In Vienna, Siegfried Marcus put the first mobile gasoline engine on a handcart.
1872: In America George Brayton invented Brayton's
Ready
commercial pressure
Motor
production,
combustion,
and
this
went
used
and
was
into
constant the
1889: Félix Millet begins development of the
1891: Herbert Akroyd Stuart built his oil engine, leasing rights to Hornsby of England to build
Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach, started the
them. They built the first cold-start compression-
genesis of the four-cycle engine. The German
ignition engines. In 1892, they installed the first
courts, however, did not hold his patent to cover
ones in a water pumping station. In the same
all in-cylinder compression engines or even the
year, an experimental higher-pressure version
four-stroke cycle, and after this decision, in-
produced
cylinder compression became universal.
compression alone.
1878: Dugald Clerk designed the first two-stroke with
in-cylinder
compression.
self-sustaining
ignition
through
1892: Rudolf Diesel developed his Carnot heat engine type motor. [
He
1879: Karl Benz, working independently, was granted a patent for his internal combustion
1887: Gustaf de Laval introduces the de Laval nozzle
1893 February 23: Rudolf Diesel received a
engine, a reliable two-stroke gas engine, based
patent for his compression ignition (diesel)
on the same technology as De Rochas's design
engine.
of the four-stroke engine. Later, Benz designed
1896: Karl Benz invented the boxer engine, also
and built his own four-stroke engine that was
known as the horizontally opposed engine, or
used in his automobiles, which were developed
the flat engine, in which the corresponding
in 1885, patented in 1886, and became the first
pistons reach top dead center at the same time,
automobiles in production.
thus balancing each other in momentum.
1882: James Atkinson invented the Atkinson
1898: Fay Oliver Farwell designs the prototype
cycle engine. Atkinson’s engine had one power
of the line of Adams-Farwell automobiles, all to
phase per revolution together with different
be powered with three or five cylinder rotary
intake
internal combustion engines.
and
expansion
volumes,
potentially
making it more efficient than the Otto cycle, but
certainly avoiding Otto's patent.
Daimler
transportation history.
patented it in England in 1881.
Gottlieb
1876: Nikolaus Otto, working with Gottlieb
engine
engineer
first vehicle to be powered by a rotary engine in
commercial liquid fuelled internal combustion
German
received a German patent for a supercharger
first
engine.
1885:
1884:
British
engineer
Edward
1900: Rudolf Diesel demonstrated the diesel engine in the 1900 Exposition Universelle
Butler
(World's Fair) using peanut oil fuel (see
constructed the first petrol (gasoline) internal combustion engine. Butler invented the spark
biodiesel).
1900: Wilhelm Maybach designed an engine
plug, ignition magneto, coil ignition and spray
built
at
jet carburetor, and was the first to use the word
following the specifications of Emil Jellinek —
petrol.
who required the engine to be named Daimler Mercedes
Daimler
after
Motoren
his
Gesellschaft —
daughter.
In
1902
automobiles with that engine were put into
1920-1980
production by DMG.
1903 - Konstantin Tsiolkovsky begins a series of
theoretical papers discussing the use of rocketry
Air Force that there is no future for the turbine
to reach outer space. A major point in his work
engine in aircraft. He bases his argument on the extremely low efficiency of existing compressor
is liquid fueled rockets.
1903: Ægidius Elling builds a gas turbine using
designs. Due to Stern's eminence, his paper is so
a centrifugal compressor which runs under its
convincing there is little official interest in gas
own power. By most definitions, this is the first
turbine engines anywhere, although this does not
working gas turbine.
last long.
1905 Alfred Buchi patents the turbocharger and
gas turbine engine. It uses multiple stages in
1903-1906: The team of Armengaud and Lemale
both the compressor and turbine, combined with
in France build a complete gas turbine engine. It
a single very large combustion chamber.
National Bureau of Standards publishes a report
temperatures allow for only a 3:1 compression
on jets, coming to the same conclusion as W.J.
ratio, and the turbine is not based on a Parsons-
Stern, that the turbine engine is not efficient
like "fan", but a Pelton wheel-like arrangement.
enough. In particular he notes that a jet would
The engine is so inefficient, at about 3% thermal
use five times as much fuel as a piston engine .
turbine.
Limits
on
the
efficiency, that the work is abandoned.
1925: The Hesselman engine is introduced by Swedish engineer Jonas Hesselman represented
started a motorcycle business in Invercargill and
the first use of direct gasoline injection on a
fitted the imported bikes with his own invention
spark-ignition engine.
[18][19]
1925: Wilhelm Pape patents a constant-volume engine design.
as well in cars as they did in motorcycles. 1908: Hans Holzwarth starts work on extensive
[17]
1908: New Zealand inventor Ernest Godward
– a petrol economiser. His economisers worked
1923: Edgar Buckingham at the United States
turbine
single
1921: Maxime Guillaume patents the axial-flow
starts producing the first examples.
uses three separate compressors driven by a
1920: William Joseph Stern reports to the Royal
1926: Alan Arnold Griffith publishes his
research on an "explosive cycle" gas turbine,
groundbreaking paper Aerodynamic Theory of
based on the Otto cycle. This design burns fuel
Turbine Design, changing the low confidence in
at a constant volume and is somewhat more
jet engines. In it he demonstrates that existing
efficient. By 1927, when the work ended, he has
compressors are "flying stalled", and that major
reached about 13% thermal efficiency.
improvements can be made by redesigning the
1908: René Lorin patents a design for the ramjet
blades from a flat profile into an airfoil, going
engine.
on
1916: Auguste Rateau suggests using exhaust-
practical engine is definitely possible and
powered compressors to improve high-altitude
showing how to build a turboprop.
performance, turbocharger.
the
first
example
of
the
to
mathematically
demonstrate
that
a
1926 - Robert Goddard launches the first liquidfueled rocket
1927: Aurel Stodola publishes his "Steam and
stroke engine with a fuel injector that employed
Gas Turbines" - basic reference for jet
what was called the Texco Combustion Process,
propulsion engineers in the USA.
which unlike normal four stroke gasoline
1927: A testbed single-shaft turbo-compressor
engines which used a separate valve for the
based on Griffith's blade design is tested at the
intake of the air-gasoline mixture, with the
Royal Aircraft Establishment.
T.C.P. engine the intake valve with a built in
1929: Frank Whittle's thesis on jet engines is
special shroud delivers the air to the cylinder in
published
a tornado type fashion at then the fuel is injected
1930: Schmidt patents a pulse-jet engine in
and ignited by a spark plug. The inventors
Germany.
claimed their engine could burn on almost any
1936: French engineer René Leduc, having
petroleum based fuel of any octane and even
independently
some
re-discovered
René
Lorin's
fuels — e.g.
kerosine,
benzine, motor oil, tractor oil, etc. — without the
first operating ramjet.
pre-combustion knock and the complete burning
1937: The first successful run of Sir Frank
of the fuel inject into the cylinder. While
Whittle's gas turbine for jet propulsion.
development was well advanced by 1950, there
March, 1937: The Heinkel HeS 1 experimental
is no records of the T.C.P. engine being used
hydrogen fueled centrifugal jet engine is tested
commercially.
1950s development begins by US firms of the
27 August 1939: The Heinkel He 178 V1
Free-piston engine concept which is a crankless
pioneer turbojet aircraft prototype makes its first
internal combustion engine.
flight, powered by an He S 3 engine.
based
design, successfully demonstrates the world's
at Hirth.
alcohol
[22]
1954: Felix Wankel's first working prototype DKM 54 of the Wankel 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
1980 to present
Whittle and others.
1942: Max Bentele discovers in Germany that
form of Scotch yoke engine and begins
turbine blades can break if vibrations are in its
development
resonance range, a phenomenon already known
July 18, 1942: The Messerschmitt Me 262 first
Company — i.e. now Chevron — developed a four
[23]
2004 Hyper-X first scramjet to maintain altitude
2004 Toyota Motor Corp files for patent
rotary pistons. A crude but complex example of
In the early 1950s engineers for The Texas
1999: Brothers, Michael and Peter Raffaele file
Engine.
three cycle internal combustion engine with
Development
form of Scotch yoke engine known as the Slider
1946: Sam Baylin develops the Baylin Engine a
the future Wankel engine.[20]
same.
patent application seeking protection for new
jet engine flight
of
subsequently abandoned.
in the USA from the steam turbine experience.
1986 Benz Gmbh files for patent protection for a
protection for new form of Scotch yoke engine.
