Who Invented the Car? - History of the Automobile Who Invented the Car? A Frenchmen made the first automobile, but its evolution was a worldwide effort. History of Cars. Gaetty Images By Mary Bellis Updated July 01, 2016. The very first self-powered road vehicles were powered by steam engines and by that definition Nicolas Joseph Cugnot of France built the first automobile in 1769 - recognized by the British Royal Automobile Club and the Automobile Club de France as being the first. So why do so many history books say that the automobile was invented by either Gottlieb Daimler or Karl Benz? It is because both Daimler and Benz invented highly successful and practical gasoline-powered vehicles that ushered in the age of modern automobiles. Daimler and Benz invented cars that looked and worked like the cars we use today. However, it is unfair to say that either man invented "the" automobile. History of the Internal Combustion Engine - The Heart of the Automobile An internal combustion engine is any engine that uses the explosive combustion of fuel to push a piston within a cylinder - the piston's movement turns a crankshaft that then turns the car wheels via a chain or a drive shaft.

continue reading below our video Should I Buy my House or Continue to Rent? The different types of fuel commonly used for car combustion engines are gasoline (or petrol), diesel, and kerosene. A brief outline of the history of the internal combustion engine includes the following highlights: 1680 - Dutch physicist, Christian Huygens designed (but never built) an internal combustion engine that was to be fueled with gunpowder. 1807 - Francois Isaac de Rivaz of Switzerland invented an internal combustion engine that used a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen for fuel. Rivaz designed a car for his engine - the first internal combustion powered automobile. However, his was a very unsuccessful design. 1824 - English engineer, Samuel Brown adapted an old Newcomen steam engine to burn gas, and he used it to briefly power a vehicle up Shooter's Hill in London. 1858 - Belgian-born engineer, Jean JosephÉtienne Lenoir invented and patented (1860) a double-acting, electric spark-ignition internal combustion engine fueled by coal gas.

In 1863, Lenoir attached an improved engine (using petroleum and a primitive carburetor) to a three-wheeled wagon that managed to complete an historic fifty-mile road trip. (See image at top) 1862 - Alphonse Beau de Rochas, a French civil engineer, patented but did not build a four-stroke engine (French patent #52,593, January 16, 1862). 1864 - Austrian engineer, Siegfried Marcus *, built a one-cylinder engine with a crude carburetor, and attached his engine to a cart for a rocky 500-foot drive. Several years later, Marcus designed a vehicle that briefly ran at 10 mph that a few historians have considered as the forerunner of the modern automobile by being the world's first gasoline-powered vehicle (however, read conflicting notes below). 1873 - George Brayton, an American engineer, developed an unsuccessful two-stroke kerosene engine (it used two external pumping cylinders). However, it was considered the first safe and practical oil engine.

1866 - German engineers, Eugen Langen and Nikolaus August Otto improved on Lenoir's and de Rochas' designs and invented a more efficient gas engine. 1876 - Nikolaus August Otto invented and later patented a successful four-stroke engine, known as the "Otto cycle". 1876 - The first successful two-stroke engine was invented by Sir Dougald Clerk. 1883 - French engineer, Edouard Delamare-Debouteville, built a single-cylinder four-stroke engine that ran on stove gas. It is not certain if he did indeed build a car, however, Delamare-Debouteville's designs were very advanced for the time - ahead of both Daimler and Benz in some ways at least on paper. 1885 - Gottlieb Daimler invented what is often recognized as the prototype of the modern gas engine - with a vertical cylinder, and with gasoline injected through a carburetor (patented in 1887).

Daimler first built a two-wheeled vehicle the "Reitwagen" (Riding Carriage) with this engine and a year later built the world's first four-wheeled motor vehicle. 1886 - On January 29, Karl Benz received the first patent (DRP No. 37435) for a gas-fueled car. 1889 - Daimler built an improved four-stroke engine with mushroom-shaped valves and two V-slant cylinders. 1890 - Wilhelm Maybach built the first four-cylinder, four-stroke engine. Further Reading - The Mechanics of Internal Combustion Engines - What is a 2-stroke? 4-stroke? Engine design and car design were integral activities, almost all of the engine designers mentioned above also designed cars, and a few went on to become major manufacturers of automobiles. All of these inventors and more made notable improvements in the evolution of the internal combustion vehicles. The Importance of Nicolaus Otto One of the most important landmarks in engine design comes from Nicolaus August Otto who in 1876 invented an effective gas motor engine.

Otto built the first practical four-stroke internal combustion engine called the "Otto Cycle Engine," and as soon as he had completed his engine, he built it into a motorcycle. Otto's contributions were very historically significant, it was his four-stoke engine that was universally adopted for all liquid-fueled automobiles going forward. (Learn more about Nicolaus Otto ) The Importance of Karl Benz In 1885, German mechanical engineer, Karl Benz designed and built the world's first practical automobile to be powered by an internal-combustion engine. On January 29, 1886, Benz received the first patent (DRP No. 37435) for a gas-fueled car. It was a three-wheeler; Benz built his first four-wheeled car in 1891. Benz & Cie., the company started by the inventor, became the world's largest manufacturer of automobiles by 1900. Benz was the first inventor to integrate an internal combustion engine with a chassis - designing both together.

(Learn more about Karl Benz ) The Importance of Gottlieb Daimler In 1885, Gottlieb Daimler (together with his design partner Wilhelm Maybach) took Otto's internal combustion engine a step further and patented what is generally recognized as the prototype of the modern gas engine. Daimler's connection to Otto was a direct one; Daimler worked as technical director of Deutz Gasmotorenfabrik, which Nikolaus Otto co-owned in 1872. There is some controversy as to who built the first motorcycle Otto or Daimler. The 1885 Daimler-Maybach engine was small, lightweight, fast, used a gasoline-injected carburetor, and had a vertical cylinder. The size, speed, and efficiency of the engine allowed for a revolution in car design. On March 8, 1886, Daimler took a stagecoach and adapted it to hold his engine, thereby designing the world's first four-wheeled automobile. Daimler is considered the first inventor to have invented a practical internal-combustion engine.

In 1889, Daimler invented a V-slanted two cylinder, four-stroke engine with mushroom-shaped valves. Just like Otto's 1876 engine, Daimler's new engine set the basis for all car engines going forward. Also in 1889, Daimler and Maybach built their first automobile from the ground up, they did not adapt another purpose vehicle as they had always been done previously. The new Daimler automobile had a four-speed transmission and obtained speeds of 10 mph. Daimler founded the Daimler Motoren-Gesellschaft in 1890 to manufacture his designs. Eleven years later, Wilhelm Maybach designed the Mercedes automobile. (Learn more about Gottlieb Daimler & Wilhelm Maybach ) *If Siegfried Marcus built his second car in 1875 and it was as claimed, it would have been the first vehicle powered by a four-cycle engine and the first to use gasoline as a fuel, the first having a carburetor for a gasoline engine and the first having a magneto ignition.

However, the only existing evidence indicates that the vehicle was built circa 1888/89 - too late to be first. By the early 1900s, gasoline cars started to outsell all other types of motor vehicles. The market was growing for economical automobiles and the need for industrial production was pressing. The first car manufacturers in the world were French: Panhard & Levassor (1889) and Peugeot (1891). By car manufacturer we mean builders of entire motor vehicles for sale and not just engine inventors who experimented with car design to test their engines - Daimler and Benz began as the latter before becoming full car manufacturers and made their early money by licensing their patents and selling their engines to car manufacturers. Rene Panhard and Emile Levassor Rene Panhard and Emile Levassor were partners in a woodworking machinery business, when they decided to become car manufacturers. They built their first car in 1890 using a Daimler engine. Edouard Sarazin, who held the license rights to the Daimler patent for France, commissioned the team.

(Licensing a patent means that you pay a fee and then you have the right to build and use someone's invention for profit - in this case Sarazin had the right to build and sell Daimler engines in France.) The partners not only manufactured cars, they made improvements to the automotive body design. Panhard-Levassor made vehicles with a pedal-operated clutch, a chain transmission leading to a change-speed gearbox, and a front radiator. Levassor was the first designer to move the engine to the front of the car and use a rear-wheel drive layout. This design was known as the Systeme Panhard and quickly became the standard for all cars because it gave a better balance and improved steering. Panhard and Levassor are also credited with the invention of the modern transmission - installed in their 1895 Panhard. Panhard and Levassor also shared the licensing rights to Daimler motors with Armand Peugot. A Peugot car went on to win the first car race held in France, which gained Peugot publicity and boosted car sales. Ironically, the "Paris to Marseille" race of 1897 resulted in a fatal auto accident, killing Emile Levassor.

(Learn more about Panhard and Levassor ) Early on, French manufacturers did not standardize car models - each car was different from the other. The first standardized car was the 1894, Benz Velo. One hundred and thirty four identical Velos were manufactured in 1895. Charles and Frank Duryea America's first gasoline-powered commercial car manufacturers were Charles and Frank Duryea. The brothers were bicycle makers who became interested in gasoline engines and automobiles and built their first motor vehicle in 1893, in Springfield, Massachusetts. By 1896, the Duryea Motor Wagon Company had sold thirteen models of the Duryea, an expensive limousine, which remained in production into the 1920s. (Learn more about Charles and Frank Duryea ) Ransome Eli Olds The first automobile to be mass produced in the United States was the 1901, Curved Dash Oldsmobile, built by the American car manufacturer Ransome Eli Olds (1864-1950). Olds invented the basic concept of the assembly line and started the Detroit area automobile industry.

He first began making steam and gasoline engines with his father, Pliny Fisk Olds, in Lansing, Michigan in 1885. Olds designed his first steam-powered car in 1887. In 1899, with a growing experience of gasoline engines, Olds moved to Detroit to start the Olds Motor Works, and produce low-priced cars. He produced 425 "Curved Dash Olds" in 1901, and was America's leading auto manufacturer from 1901 to 1904. Henry Ford American car manufacturer, Henry Ford (1863-1947) invented an improved assembly line and installed the first conveyor belt-based assembly line in his car factory in Ford's Highland Park, Michigan plant, around 1913-14. The assembly line reduced production costs for cars by reducing assembly time. Ford's famous Model T was assembled in ninety-three minutes. Ford made his first car, called the "Quadricycle," in June, 1896. However, success came after he formed the Ford Motor Company in 1903. This was the third car manufacturing company formed to produce the cars he designed.

He introduced the Model T in 1908 and it was a success. After installing the moving assembly lines in his factory in 1913, Ford became the world's biggest car manufacturer. By 1927, 15 million Model Ts had been manufactured. Another victory won by Henry Ford was patent battle with George B. Selden. Selden, who had never built an automobile, held a patent on a "road engine", on that basis Selden was paid royalties by all American car manufacturers. Ford overturned Selden's patent and opened the American car market for the building of inexpensive cars. (Learn more about Henry Ford ) Who invented the Internal Combustion Engine? « - Who invented the Internal Combustion Engine? Speaking on engines in general, reminds me who got the credit for inventing the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) . Before there was Karl Benz or Henry Ford, there was Nikolaus Otto. The German inventor was the first to produce an efficient working internal combustion engine, others had mild success at internal combustion engine design, but the age of internal combustion was put together in full with the Otto Cycle Engine. The Otto engine was invented in 1862.

He was granted a patent for his machine, although others were knocking on the door too. Simply put, every car owner can thank Otto for patenting the first engine for automotive use. No matter what brand of car you own, an American car with an American engine or possibly a Foreign engine, or vice versa (plenty of American cars use Foreign engines , as currentplenty of Foreign cars use American engines), no matter how advanced the engine is, Otto designed the method of operation for all ICEs as we know them today. By that time, however, he was co-owner of a successful company manufacturing stationary internal combustion engines for light industry. These engines worked on what was then called â€œgaslight gasâ€, and had to be hooked up to gas pipes and ignited from a pilot light. In the late 1890’s Otto developed an electrical ignition system, the first ‘spark plug’ was used to ignite liquid fuels for internal combustion. Petroleum quickly became popular as a mobile fuel source. The electrical ignition idea can actually be first found in the work of Alessandro Volta who used it to ignite gas to fire a cork from a small gun in the 1780â€™s.

Karl Benz is given credit for the first automobile. It used an engine similar to the original Otto Cycle Engine, which Benz himself designed. Benzâ€™s company later joined forces with Diamler Motors to form Diamler-Benz, now Mercedes Benz. Gottlieb Diamler was a former employee of Ottoâ€™s first motor company. He founded his own enterprise after Ottoâ€™s death. Otto, and his internal combustion engine are responsible for powering much of early German Industrialization. Once applied to the automobile the internal combustion engine changed the way people traveled and moved goods in a revolutionary way. Just as the steam engine had made railroads possible, the internal combustion engine made moving heavy loads without fixed tracks much easier and more practical. Perhaps this is why the German cars are considered the best engineered cars in the world today. It is no secret that Mercedes Benz engines and BMW engines are world class engineering products. Porsche and Volkswagen are also German made with world renowned German engineering. Every time you hit the starter on your car, think of Otto, he is responsible for the first gasoline or fossil fuel engine. Whatever you drive, A Foreign car or American car the basic theory of an ICE is the same. Technology has been the biggest change.

With that in mind it is important to know where you can buy a remanufactured engine should your engine have a failure. Your out of luck as far as the original Otto engine goes, unless the Smithsonian Museum will lend you one of theirs. Realistically speaking, most of us drive newer cars with newer technology, which continues to develop with the times. If you need an engine for a modern day car, GotEngines.com can outfit you with any replacement engine you may need. Ask them for an Otto engine, I bet they give it a try!! Call 1-866-320-1065. Please take a second to sign up for our free blog . It will be in you email every morning. Consider it part of your daily news routine. You can’t be over educated as a consumer when it comes time for an engine repair or an engine replacement. Nicolaus Otto and the Foundation of the Modern Engine By Mary Bellis Updated August 14, 2016. One of the most important landmarks in engine design comes from Nicolaus Otto who in 1876 invented an effective gas motor engine -- the first practical alternative to the steam engine.

Otto built the first practical four-stroke internal combustion engine called the "Otto Cycle Engine," and when he completed his engine, he built it into a motorcycle . Otto's Early Days Nicolaus Otto was born on June 14, 1832, in Holzhausen, Germany. He was the youngest of six children. His father died in 1832. He began school in 1838. After six years of good performance, he moved to the high school in Langenschwalbach until 1848. He did not complete his studies but was cited for good performance. Otto's main interest in school had been in science and technology but, nevertheless, he graduated after three years as a business apprentice in a small merchandise company. After completing his apprenticeship he moved to Frankfurt where he worked for Philipp Jakob Lindheimer as a salesman, selling tea, coffee and sugar. He soon developed an interest in the new technologies of the day and began experimenting with building four-stroke engines (inspired by Lenoir's two-stroke gas-driven internal combustion engine).

In late autumn of 1860, Otto and his brother learned of a novel gas engine that Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir had built in Paris. The brothers built a copy of the Lenoir engine and applied for a patent in January 1861 for a liquid-fueled engine based on the Lenoir (Gas) engine with the Prussian Ministry of Commerce but it was rejected. The engine ran just a few minutes before breaking. Otto's brother gave up on the concept resulting in Otto looking for help elsewhere. After meeting Eugen Langen, a technician and owner of a sugar factory, Otto quit his job, and in 1864, the duo started the world's first engine manufacturing company N.A. Otto & Cie (now DEUTZ AG, Köln). In 1867, the pair were awarded a Gold Medal at the Paris World Exhibition for their atmospheric gas engine built a year earlier. Four-Stroke Engine In May 1876, Nicolaus Otto built the first practical four-stroke piston cycle internal combustion engine.

He continued to develop his four-stroke engine after 1876 and he considered his work finished after his invention of the first magneto ignition system for low voltage ignition in 1884. Otto's patent was overturned in 1886 in favor of the patent granted to Alphonse Beau de Roaches for his four-stroke engine. However, Otto built a working engine while Roaches' design stayed on paper. On October 23, 1877, another patent for a gas-motor engine was issued to Nicolaus Otto, and Francis and William Crossley. In all, Otto built the following engines: 1861 A copy of Lenoir's atmospheric engine 1862 A four cycle compressed charge engine (prior to Rochas's patent) which failed as it broke almost immediately 1864 The first successful atmospheric engine 1876 The four stroke compressed charge engine which is acknowledged as the "Otto" cycle engine. The term Otto cycle is applied to all compressed charge, four cycle engines. Nicolaus Otto died at age 59, on January 26, 1891, in Cologne.

Car History 4U - History of The Internal Combustion Engine History of The Internal Combustion Engine 8.1 History of : About 1794: Robert Street (British) built a compression-less engine. 1806-7: Francois Isaac de Rivaz (Swiss) built a working internal combustion engine that was powered by a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen. The exhaust valve was foot-operated. He demonstrated the engine by mounting it on a small trolley, which travelled a few metres. 1823: Samuel Brown (British) patented the first internal, compression-less combustion engine. It was for industrial use. 1826: Samuel Morey (American) received a patent for a compression-less "Gas or Vapor Engine". Between 1835 and about 1855 Alfred Drake (American) developed a gas fuelled internal combustion engine that was fitted with an ingenious ignition system in the form of heated tubes. 1838: A patent was granted to William Barnet (British), who was possibly the first person to propose “in-cylinder” compression.

An effective internal combustion engine was designed by Stuart Perry (American) and patented in 1844 and 1846. It is thought to have been gas powered. 1854: Eugenio Barsanti and Felice Matteucci (Italians) patented an efficient internal combustion engine but it did not go into production. 1860: Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir (Belgian, naturalized French) patented a single-cylinder, two-stroke internal combustion engine. It had electric ignition and ran on coal gas. 1862: Lenoir built a 1.5 hp petrol fuelled version that was fitted with a simple carburettor. 1862: Nikolaus August Otto (German) designed an efficient indirect-acting, four-stroke, free-piston compression-less engine. 1862: Alphonse Beau de Rochas (French) was granted a patent for a four-stroke engine. 1866: In Germany Otto submitted a patent for a four-stroke, free-piston atmospheric engine. Twenty years later, in 1886, his application was finally rejected in favour of Rochas.

Despite Rochas' earlier patent the four-stroke principle is still often referred to as the “Otto cycle”. About 1870: Siegfried Marcus (German-Austrian) produced a single-cylinder, four-stroke engine using petroleum fuel. Note: A date of 1864 has also been mentioned, possibly the date when Marcus started work on his invention. 1873-4: George Brayton (American) developed an engine that used kerosene fuel. Some consider it to be the first safe and practical oil powered engine made. 1876: Nikolaus Otto, working with Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach (all German), was credited with inventing the first practical, gas powered four-stroke engine. 1878: Sir Dougald Clerk (British) developed the two-stroke engine cycle. 1879: Karl Benz (German) was granted a patent for a new and more reliable two-stroke engine based on Otto's design of the four-stroke engine. Benz later on designed and built his own four-stroke engines that were used in his motor cars.

1883: Edouard Delamare-Debouteville (French), built a single-cylinder four-stroke engine that ran on stove gas. At about this time he also produced a carburettor for running on liquid (petroleum) fuels. 1884: Deboutteville produced a four-stroke, two-cylinder liquid fuelled engine that contained many innovations that were well ahead of their time, including pistons with rings, air or water cooling of the cylinders, exhaust muffler, etc. 1885: Daimler and Maybach developed the first of their important engines. It was air cooled and operated at the then high speed of 600 rpm. This was at a time when most engines did not exceed 180 rpm. In 1885 they also produced a carburettor. It was used later that year on a larger, but still compact version of the engine, that had a 100 cc displacement and produced 1 hp at 600 rpm. Daimler baptised it the “Grandfather Clock”. In November 1885, Daimler installed a smaller version into a wooden bicycle.

It was driven by Maybach and achieved a speed of 12 kph (7.5 mph). 1886 to 1889: Along with his partner Wilhelm Maybach, Daimler produced four 1.5 hp, 600 rpm engines. Due to their size, speed and efficiency they represented a major step forward in engine design. 1893: Rudolf Diesel (German) built a diesel fuelled internal combustion engine, applying for a patent in 1894 (which was granted four years later). In 1896/7 he operated the first reliable diesel engine. 1897: Gustaf Erikson (Swedish) built an engine that ran on paraffin. 1898: Donát Bánki (Hungarian) invented a high-compression engine with a dual carburettor. Sometime between 1899 and 1902 Emilio de la Cuadra (Spanish) built his first gas powered engine. It was based on an engine designed by Marc Birkigt (Swiss) who worked for Emilo's La Cuadra Company.

© copyright - form and function Engine's History | car News @ Top Speed by Simona 2 V-type engines, In-line engine, Flat-engines, rotary or electrical engines... You know them all, you know how they look, that they do, what’s their power, which maker what use. But do you know how it all started? When it all started? continue reading How it all started... It all started back in 1506 when no one else than Leonardo da Vinci described a compression-less engine -his description may not imply that the idea was original with him or that it was actually buil. The same thing was done a sentury and a half latter, in 1673 by Christiaan Huygens. In 1794, Robert Street built a compression-less engine whose principle of operation would dominate for nearly a century. English inventor Sir Samuel Morland used gunpowder to drive water pumps in the 17th century. The first internal combustion engine to be Applied industrially was patented by Samual Brown in 1823. It was based on what Hardenberg calls the "Leonardo cycle", which, as this name implies, was already out of date at that time.

The Italians Eugenio Barsanti and Felice Matteucci patented the first working, efficient internal combustion engine in 1854 in London but did not get into production with it. In 1860, Etienne Lenoir produced a gas-fired internal combustion engine not dissimilar in appearance to a steam beam engine. This closely resembled a horizontal double acting steam engine, with cylinders, pistons, connecting-rods and fly wheel in which the gas essentially took the place of the steam. This was the first internal combustion engine to be produced in numbers. The American Samuel Morey received a patent on April 1, 1826 for a "Gas Or Vapor Engine". In 1862 Nikolaus Otto designed an indirect-acting free-piston compression-less engine whose greater efficiency won the support of Langen and then most of the market, which at that time, was mostly for small stationary engines fueled by lighting gas. Then, in 1876 working with Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach developed a practical four-stroke cycle (Otto 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. More than 250 years of the "engine history" have passed untill Karl Benz, 1879, developed an internal combustion engine based on Nikolaus Otto’s design of the four-stroke engine. Later Benz designed and built his own four-stroke engine that was used in his automobiles, which became the first automobiles in production. After 18 years, in 1896 he invented the boxer engine, also known as the horizontally opposed engine, in which the corresponding pistons reach top dead centre at the same time, thus balancing each other in momentum. Internal combustion engine The internal combustion engine is a heat engine in which the burning of a fuel occurs in a confined space called a combustion chamber. This exothermic reaction of a fuel with an oxidizer creates gases of high temperature and pressure, which are permitted to expand.

The defining feature of an internal combustion engine is that useful work is performed by the expanding hot gases acting directly to cause movement, for example by acting on pistons, rotors, or even by pressing on and moving the entire engine itself. The internal combustion engine was invnented by Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir. Lenoir made the first internal combustion engine that provides a reliable and continuous source of power, which was the gas engine using coal gas, in 1860, in France. The first practical internal combustion engine based heavily on experience from the production of steam engines. The engine had a horizontal cylinder; slide valves were used to draw in the fuel-air mixture; and it was double acting, the mixture being fed into the cylinder alternately at either end of the piston. Once it is in the cylinder the mixture was ignited by electric sparks generated at spark plugs by a coil and a battery. This ignition system, a primitive ancestor of modern electric ignition, was unreliable. Because the first internal combustion engine was unreliable, many later pioneers made improvements of the first internal combustion engine. As a result many new engines were made. Such engines were the two and four stroke engine and the petrol engine.

Siegfried Marcus in Austria in 1864 was able to create an engine that uses petrol as a fuel. The first internal combustion engine is the basic form for modern car engines. V Engines A V engine is a common configuration for an internal combustion engine. The pistons are aligned so that they appear to be in a V when viewed along the line of the crankshaft. The V configuration reduces the overall engine length and weight compared to an equivalent straight engine. The first V-engine was invented by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in 1888. It was the first time that it was actually possible to give a measure for the angel between the cylinders - in this case it was just 17. The engine had 1050 cc and managed 4 bhp at 900 1/min. V4 engines A V4 engine is a a V form engine with four cylinders. It was first used by Lancia starting 1922 through 1960. It was a narrow-angle aluminum design. All three displacements shared the same long 120 mm stroke, and all were SOHC designs with a single camshaft serving both banks of cylinders.

Two totally diferent engines were produced by Ford of Europe: one was the V4 engine used in the british Ford Essex and the second one the V4 engine of the german Ford Taunus. The first one was available in two capacities: 1633cc and 1996cc, differing only in stroke. The second one was a V4 piston engine with one balance shaft, introduced by Ford Motor Company in Germany in 1962. Later it was later expanded into the Ford Cologne V6 engine that is used in the Ford Capri and many other Ford cars. The Taunus V4 was replaced by the Ford OHC/Pinto engine. V6 engine A V6 is an internal combustion piston engine with six cylinders in a "V" configuration. It is the second most common engine configuration in modern cars after the inline-4; it shares with that engine a compactness very suited to the popular front wheel drive layout, and is becoming more popular as car weights increase. The first V6 was introduced by Lancia on the 1924 Lancia Lambda, but it made little impact.

The design was reintroduced by the company in 1950 with the Lancia Aurelia; this time, other manufacturers took note and soon other V6 engines were in use. The design really took off after the 1962 introduction of the Buick Special. Though the model was not a spectacular success, it was the first mass-produced V6 engine. In 1983 Nissan produced Japan’s first V6 engine with the VG series. V8 engines A V8 engine is a V engine with eight cylinders. The V8 is a very common configuration for large automobile engines. V8 engines are rarely less than 4 L in displacement and in automobile use have gone up to 8.5 L or so. The first engine was a british one, developed by Rolls Royce: a 3.5 L Rolls-Royce Legalimit. But Cadillac was the first automobile maker to mass produce a V8 engine. The company has produced eight generations of V8s since 1914. The Type 51 was the first Cadillac V8. Introduced in 1914, it was the standard engine for 1915 Cadillac models.

One significant innovation with the 70-horsepower, 314-cubic-inch (5.1 liter) L-head design was the thermostatic control of cooling-water circulation. The engine, multi-plate clutch and gearbox were combined in one bolted-together assembly. The United States War Department purchased over 2,000 standard Cadillac V8 models for use in Europe during World War I. The V-8 engine was developed by France’s renowned auto maker, Count De Dion Bouton, so although it came as a distinct innovation in a stock American car, the principle was not a new one. Cadillac ’s new V-8 engine was actually shorter and 60 lbs lighter than the four-cylinder motor that preceded it. Its high torque allowed speeds up to 55-60mph to be achieved in high gear. Quick acceleration was another benefit of the new 314 cubic inch motor rated at 31.25HP (SAE); dynamometer tests produced 70HP at 2,400 rpm.

Other features of the new power plant include thermostatic control of the coolant temperature, forced-feed lubrication through a gear pump at the front of the motor, a gearbox attached to the motor rather than mounted amidships, as before, and a floating rear axle with worm bevel gears replacing the former straight bevels. The engine was refined for 1923 with a new split crankshaft that introduced the (now standard) 90° offset for each pair of cylinders. Power was up to 83.5 hp. The L-Head was on the Ward’s 10 Best Engines of the 20th Century list. Cadillac created a new V8, the 341, for 1928. It was a 341 in³ engine and produced 90 hp. The same year saw the introduction of the synchromesh transmission. This engine was used in the Series 341 and 341B cars of 1928 and 1929. From 1930 through 1935, Cadillac produced a version with an increased displacement of 5.8 L.

This used a 3.38 in (85.7 mm) bore and 4.94 in (125.4 mm) stroke. V10 engine A V10 engine is a V engine with 10 cylinders in two banks of five. The V10 configuration is not an inherently balanced design like an Inline6/V12. It can be balanced with crankshaft counterweights as a odd firing 90 degree Vee engine ( BMW M5, Dodge Viper). It can be balanced with a balance shaft as an even firing 72 degree engine, or with a split crankshaft journal 90 degree Vee angle (Lamborghini Gallardo, Ford 6.8 V10). Until recently V10s had rarely been a popular configuration for road cars: a V12 is only slightly more complicated and runs more smoothly and a V8 is less complex and more economical. The V10 engine was used starting 1994 in the Dodge Ram. V12 engine A V12 engine is a V engine with 12 cylinders.

Like a straight-6, this configuration has perfect primary and secondary balance no matter which V angle is used and therefore needs no balance shafts. The first V12 engine was used in 1912 in Packard’s "Double Six", but before the World War II the engine was used in a lot of luxury cars: Cadillac, Packard, Lincoln, Franklin, Rolls-Royce, and Hispano-Suiza. After the World War II the type lost favor in the United States, where the V8 engine became ubiquitous. Italian sports cars from such makers as Ferrari and Lamborghini used the V12 almost exclusively on their highest-performance vehicles, while Jaguar developed a V12 that was put into production in 1971 and lasted until 1997. Ferrari ’s newest V12 (used in the 599) is based on the Ferrari Enzo’s, while the company’s flat 12 engine is really a 180° V12.

The History of the Automobile - Gas Engines The History of the Automobile The Internal Combustion Engine and Early Gas-Powered Cars More of This Car Feature - Car Invention Trivia The very first self-powered road vehicles were powered by steam engines and by that definition Nicolas Joseph Cugnot of France built the first automobile in 1769 - recognized by the British Royal Automobile Club and the Automobile Club de France as being the first. So why do so many history books say that the automobile was invented by either Gottlieb Daimler or Karl Benz? It is because both Daimler and Benz invented highly successful and practical gasoline-powered vehicles that ushered in the age of modern automobiles. Daimler and Benz invented cars that looked and worked like the cars we use today. However, it is unfair to say that either man invented "the" automobile. History of the Internal Combustion Engine - The Heart of the Automobile An internal combustion engine is any engine that uses the explosive combustion of fuel to push a piston within a cylinder - the piston's movement turns a crankshaft that then turns the car wheels via a chain or a drive shaft. The different types of fuel commonly used for car combustion engines are gasoline (or petrol), diesel, and kerosene.

A brief outline of the history of the internal combustion engine includes the following highlights: 1680 - Dutch physicist, Christian Huygens designed (but never built) an internal combustion engine that was to be fueled with gunpowder. 1807 - Francois Isaac de Rivaz of Switzerland invented an internal combustion engine that used a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen for fuel. Rivaz designed a car for his engine - the first internal combustion powered automobile. However, his was a very unsuccessful design. 1824 - English engineer, Samuel Brown adapted an old Newcomen steam engine to burn gas, and he used it to briefly power a vehicle up Shooter's Hill in London. 1858 - Belgian-born engineer, Jean JosephÉtienne Lenoir invented and patented (1860) a double-acting, electric spark-ignition internal combustion engine fueled by coal gas. In 1863, Lenoir attached an improved engine (using petroleum and a primitive carburetor) to a three-wheeled wagon that managed to complete an historic fifty-mile road trip.

(See image at top) 1862 - Alphonse Beau de Rochas, a French civil engineer, patented but did not build a four-stroke engine (French patent #52,593, January 16, 1862). 1864 - Austrian engineer, Siegfried Marcus *, built a one-cylinder engine with a crude carburetor, and attached his engine to a cart for a rocky 500-foot drive. Several years later, Marcus designed a vehicle that briefly ran at 10 mph that a few historians have considered as the forerunner of the modern automobile by being the world's first gasoline-powered vehicle (however, read conflicting notes below). 1873 - George Brayton, an American engineer, developed an unsuccessful two-stroke kerosene engine (it used two external pumping cylinders). However, it was considered the first safe and practical oil engine. 1866 - German engineers, Eugen Langen and Nikolaus August Otto improved on Lenoir's and de Rochas' designs and invented a more efficient gas engine.

1876 - Nikolaus August Otto invented and later patented a successful four-stroke engine, known as the "Otto cycle". 1876 - The first successful two-stroke engine was invented by Sir Dougald Clerk. 1883 - French engineer, Edouard Delamare-Debouteville, built a single-cylinder four-stroke engine that ran on stove gas. It is not certain if he did indeed build a car, however, Delamare-Debouteville's designs were very advanced for the time - ahead of both Daimler and Benz in some ways at least on paper. 1885 - Gottlieb Daimler invented what is often recognized as the prototype of the modern gas engine - with a vertical cylinder, and with gasoline injected through a carburetor (patented in 1887). Daimler first built a two-wheeled vehicle the "Reitwagen" (Riding Carriage) with this engine and a year later built the world's first four-wheeled motor vehicle. 1886 - On January 29, Karl Benz received the first patent (DRP No.

37435) for a gas-fueled car. 1889 - Daimler built an improved four-stroke engine with mushroom-shaped valves and two V-slant cylinders. 1890 - Wilhelm Maybach built the first four-cylinder, four-stroke engine. Further Reading - The Mechanics of Internal Combustion Engines - What is a 2-stroke? 4-stroke? Engine design and car design were integral activities, almost all of the engine designers mentioned above also designed cars, and a few went on to become major manufacturers of automobiles. All of these inventors and more made notable improvements in the evolution of the internal combustion vehicles. The Importance of Nicolaus Otto One of the most important landmarks in engine design comes from Nicolaus August Otto who in 1876 invented an effective gas motor engine. Otto built the first practical four-stroke internal combustion engine called the "Otto Cycle Engine," and as soon as he had completed his engine, he built it into a motorcycle. Otto's contributions were very historically significant, it was his four-stoke engine that was universally adopted for all liquid-fueled automobiles going forward.

(Learn more about Nicolaus Otto ) The Importance of Karl Benz In 1885, German mechanical engineer, Karl Benz designed and built the world's first practical automobile to be powered by an internal-combustion engine. On January 29, 1886, Benz received the first patent (DRP No. 37435) for a gas-fueled car. It was a three-wheeler; Benz built his first four-wheeled car in 1891. Benz & Cie., the company started by the inventor, became the world's largest manufacturer of automobiles by 1900. Benz was the first inventor to integrate an internal combustion engine with a chassis - designing both together. (Learn more about Karl Benz ) The Importance of Gottlieb Daimler In 1885, Gottlieb Daimler (together with his design partner Wilhelm Maybach) took Otto's internal combustion engine a step further and patented what is generally recognized as the prototype of the modern gas engine.

Daimler's connection to Otto was a direct one; Daimler worked as technical director of Deutz Gasmotorenfabrik, which Nikolaus Otto co-owned in 1872. There is some controversy as to who built the first motorcycle Otto or Daimler. The 1885 Daimler-Maybach engine was small, lightweight, fast, used a gasoline-injected carburetor, and had a vertical cylinder. The size, speed, and efficiency of the engine allowed for a revolution in car design. On March 8, 1886, Daimler took a stagecoach and adapted it to hold his engine, thereby designing the world's first four-wheeled automobile. Daimler is considered the first inventor to have invented a practical internal-combustion engine. In 1889, Daimler invented a V-slanted two cylinder, four-stroke engine with mushroom-shaped valves. Just like Otto's 1876 engine, Daimler's new engine set the basis for all car engines going forward.

Also in 1889, Daimler and Maybach built their first automobile from the ground up, they did not adapt another purpose vehicle as they had always been done previously. The new Daimler automobile had a four-speed transmission and obtained speeds of 10 mph. Daimler founded the Daimler Motoren-Gesellschaft in 1890 to manufacture his designs. Eleven years later, Wilhelm Maybach designed the Mercedes automobile. (Learn more about Gottlieb Daimler & Wilhelm Maybach ) *If Siegfried Marcus built his second car in 1875 and it was as claimed, it would have been the first vehicle powered by a four-cycle engine and the first to use gasoline as a fuel, the first having a carburetor for a gasoline engine and the first having a magneto ignition. However, the only existing evidence indicates that the vehicle was built circa 1888/89 - too late to be first.

Nikolaus Otto | German engineer | Britannica.com German engineer Alternative Title: Nikolaus August Otto Nikolaus Otto Robert Bosch Nikolaus Otto, in full Nikolaus August Otto (born June 10, 1832, Holzhausen, Nassau, Germany —died January 26, 1891, Cologne ), German engineer who developed the four-stroke internal-combustion engine , which offered the first practical alternative to the steam engine as a power source. Nikolaus Otto, c. 1868 Ullstein Bilderdienst Otto built his first gasoline-powered engine in 1861. Three years later he formed a partnership with the German industrialist Eugen Langen , and together they developed an improved engine that won a gold medal at the Paris Exposition of 1867. In 1876 Otto built an internal-combustion engine utilizing the four-stroke cycle (four strokes of the piston for each ignition).

The four-stroke cycle was patented in 1862 by the French engineer Alphonse Beau de Rochas , but since Otto was the first to build an engine based upon this principle, it is commonly known as the Otto cycle. Because of its reliability, its efficiency , and its relative quietness, Otto’s engine was an immediate success. More than 30,000 of them were built during the next 10 years, but in 1886 Otto’s patent was revoked when Beau de Rochas’ earlier patent was brought to light. Learn More in these related articles: in history of technology: Internal-combustion engine ...sides of the piston when it was in midstroke position. Although technically satisfactory, the engine was expensive to operate, and it was not until the refinement introduced by the German inventor Nikolaus Otto in 1878 that the gas engine became a commercial success. Otto adopted the four-stroke cycle of induction-compression-firing-exhaust that has been known by his name ever since. Gas... 5 References found in Britannica Articles Assorted References partnership with Langen (in Eugen Langen ) Article History Corrections? Updates? Help us improve this article!

Contact our editors with your feedback. MEDIA FOR: You have successfully emailed this. Error when sending the email. Try again later. Edit Mode Submit Tips For Editing We welcome suggested improvements to any of our articles. You can make it easier for us to review and, hopefully, publish your contribution by keeping a few points in mind. Encyclopædia Britannica articles are written in a neutral objective tone for a general audience. You may find it helpful to search within the site to see how similar or related subjects are covered. Any text you add should be original, not copied from other sources. At the bottom of the article, feel free to list any sources that support your changes, so that we can fully understand their context. (Internet URLs are the best.) Your contribution may be further edited by our staff, and its publication is subject to our final approval. Unfortunately, our editorial approach may not be able to accommodate all contributions. Submit Thank You for Your Contribution! Our editors will review what you've submitted, and if it meets our criteria, we'll add it to the article. Please note that our editors may make some formatting changes or correct spelling or grammatical errors, and may also contact you if any clarifications are needed.

Uh Oh There was a problem with your submission. Please try again later. Close Date Published: October 03, 2016 URL: Access Date: January 19, 2017 Share Car Bibles : The History of the combustion engine Dieselgate continues with Jeep I'm not sure why this took so long to come out - I wrote about Jeep's diesel cheating problem on October 19th 2015 - 15 months ago. But sure enough, it's finally come to light this week that yes - Jeep have the problem too. So now we're just waiting for the other ten to be named : Mazda, Honda, Mitsubishi, Mercedes Benz, Renault, Nissan, Hyundai, Citroen, Fiat and Volvo. I'm honestly not sure why it's taking so long. Emission Analytics proved the diesel vehicles from all those manufacturers emitted way higher NOx levels than stated, which means in order to pass any sort of smog or emissions test, they must have some sort of defeat code or device in them. I suppose that now Trump is in charge, and now the EPA is going to be run by climate-denier Scott Pruitt, those other ten manufacturers will probably be let off the hook.

The history of the combustion engine From humble beginnings to the engines we know today First a trick question: which came first - the steam engine or the internal combustion (IC) engine? Don't worry if you thought 'steam' because it's the most common answer. The reality is obviously not quite so straightforward or I wouldn't be using up your bandwidth to explain it to you. The first use of steam to propel something was Hero's 1st century (60AD) Aeophile Steam Turbine but it was more of a toy than an actual engine. Essentially a sphere full of water with a couple of nozzles in it, users would light a fire under it and as the water boiled, steam came out of the nozzles and made it spin. It was fun to watch, and today's health-and-safety execs would have marvelled at the dangerousness of it, but at its root, it was a toy and nothing more. Huygen's engine So internal combustion (IC) engines vs. steam - dates please. Well work started on IC engines around the turn of the 16th century, finishing late in the 17th century which was when steam power was starting to show a lot of promise.

So much so in fact that IC was just abandoned. Abandoned I tell you! The fools. Well, in fairness, once you see how they worked, it's easy to understand why. At the time, the only half-decent fuel was gunpowder and it wasn't so much the explosion that caused the piston motion as the resulting vacuum from it. The idea was simple. Stuff a piston in the top of a tube, explode gunpowder at the bottom of it to suck up all the oxygen, and the resulting vacuum would cause a pressure imbalance on the piston so that atmospheric pressure would suck it down into the cylinder. Hence these engines were called atmospheric engines. The first attempt at making one of these was in 1673 by Christiaan Huygens. Nice idea but it only worked once and then you needed to refill the cylinder with gunpowder. So it had a single non-repeating cycle and the materials of the day weren't really up to the job of withstanding that sort of strain. Newcomen Steam Engine So as this mess was going on with gunpowder, Watt's steam engine and the Newcomen Steam engine were operating on the same principle but using steam instead.

As the steam condensed to water, it contracted, creating the vacuum and once again, atmospheric pressure was used to push a piston into a cylinder. The advantage with using steam was that it could be created outside the cylinder and injected when necessary making this a repeatable process. So rather than the one-shot deal of Huygen's engine, these ones could run as long as there was a fresh supply of steam. For 150 years or more, this is how all engines were until piped gas supplies started to become commonplace. Gas-atmospheric engines Skipping merrily through the timeline to 1860, Belgian Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir took out a patent on the first practical, working gas engine. He was the first person to succeed in making an IC engine that ran reliably and stably. Rather than the one-shot gunpowder idea, natural gas was injected into the cylinder and ignited by a travelling flame front to create the explosion which ate up all the oxygen. (the flame came from a permanent gas flame outside the cylinder that was sucked into it at the appropriate moment to ignite the gas). Again the resulting vacuum caused the piston to be sucked back into the cylinder creating the power stroke.

Lenoir's engines ran up to 20hp in power and between 1860 and 1865 over 300 of these engines were built. Otto and Langen In 1864 Nicolaus August Otto and Eugen Langen founded a gas atmospheric engine factory called Deutz (which famously employed Wilhelm Maybach and Gottlieb Daimler). In Paris during the 1867 world exhibition, Otto and Langen began to demonstrate their success. Their engine ran 30% more efficiently than Lenoir's and sold about 5,000 units until 1877 making it the first mass-produced engine. The continous up-down motion of the piston was converted to rotary motion for the first time by the use of a rack and pinion and clutch. The rack was attached to the piston and as it travelled up and down, it spun the pinion gear on a one-way clutch resulting in every other stroke being a power stroke. A flywheel maintained momentum between power strokes and with the exhaust gasses being expelled by the downward motion of the piston, this was very close to the 4-stroke engine cycle we know today.

The Otto Cycle Otto demonstrated the first true 4-stroke cycle in 1876 after giving up active management of Otto & Langen and going back to an 1861 design of his own. Rather than relying on the atmospheric imbalance to provide the power stroke, he instead turned the initial explosion into the power stroke and used the flywheel to help maintain momentum and return the piston down the cylinder. He replaced the rack and pinion with the connecting rod and crank to improve efficiency and remove slack from the mechanical transfer of the power from the piston to the flywheel. His design had four strokes to complete one entire cycle. The first stroke sucked gas into the cylinder. The second compressed it. A live flame front was introduced to detonate the gas resulting in the third (the power) stroke as the piston was expelled from the cylinder. The spinning flywheel forced the piston back into the cylinder in the fourth stroke, expelling the spent gasses and readying the mechanism for the cycle to begin again. Et voila, as the French would say, a four-stroke engine. Patent 365701 Otto patented his engine with patent number 365,701.

Unfortunately, despite him being the first person to build a working four-stroke engine, Aphonse Beau de Rochas had already patented the idea (if not the design) in 1862 despite having never made such an engine himself. In 1886, Otto's patent was revoked. He did have other patents though and they were worded and enforced so well that many other designs were tried to get around the 4-stroke patent. Notably, the Atkinson engine was a 6-stroke engine with the extra 2 strokes being used to scavenge and clean the cylinder. Nevertheless, Otto's name stuck and that buzzing little beauty in your car today is the result. Article researched at the Anson Engine Museum in Poynton, England. It's a bit out of the way but it's well worth a visit if you're into this sort of thing. Which I am. Obviously. PAGE NAVIGATION

Question: What was the name of the German who invented the first practical internal combustion engine?
Answer: Nikolaus August Otto