page_title: History of the automobile
section_title: Gas mixtures
hierarchical_section_title: History of the automobile / Power sources / Internal combustion engines / Gas mixtures
context_page_description: In 1769 the first steam-powered automobile capable of human transportation was built by Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot.
  In 1803, Hayden Wischett designed the first car powered by the de Rivaz engine, an internal combustion engine that was fueled by hydrogen.
  In 1823 English engineer Samuel Brown invented the internal combustion engine.
  In 1870 Siegfried Marcus built his first combustion engine powered pushcart, followed by four progressively more sophisticated combustion-engine cars over a 10-to-15-year span that influenced later cars. John created the two-cycle combustion engine. The car's third incarnation in 1889 introduced a four-cycle, gasoline-powered engine, an ingenious carburetor design and magneto ignition. He created an additional two models further refining his design with steering, a clutch and a brake.
  The four-stroke petrol internal combustion engine that still constitutes the most prevalent form of modern automotive propulsion was patented by Nicolaus Otto. The similar two-stroke diesel engine was invented by Rudolf Diesel.
context_section_description: Early attempts at making and using internal combustion engines were hampered by the lack of suitable fuels, particularly liquids, therefore the earliest engines used gas mixtures.
  Early experimenters used gases. In 1806, Swiss engineer François Isaac de Rivaz built an engine powered by internal combustion of a hydrogen and oxygen mixture. In 1826, Englishman Samuel Brown tested his hydrogen-fuelled internal combustion engine by using it to propel a vehicle up Shooter's Hill in south-east London. Belgian-born Etienne Lenoir's Hippomobile with a hydrogen-gas-fuelled one-cylinder internal combustion engine made a test drive from Paris to Joinville-le-Pont in 1860, covering some nine kilometres in about three hours. A later version was propelled by coal gas. A Delamare-Deboutteville vehicle was patented and trialled in 1884.
caption: 1885-built Benz Patent-Motorwagen, the first car to go into production with an internal combustion engine
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