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.