10.1 Spark Plug

• The use of an electric spark to ignite a fuel-air mixture was first demonstrated in 1777 by Alessandro Volta (Italian).

• Jean Lenoir (Belgian, naturalised French) patented what most closely resembles the modern spark plug in 1860.

• Karl Benz (German) is credited with inventing a spark plug in about 1885.

• In 1897 Robert Bosch (German) made a significant breakthrough when he adapted a magneto ignition device to a vehicle engine.

• Patents for spark plugs were granted to Nikola Tesla (American), Richard Simms (British) and Robert Bosch in 1898.

• In 1902 Robert Bosch's engineer Gottlob Honold (German) invented the first commercially viable high-voltage spark plug.

10.2 Battery

• 250 BC: The oldest known electrical cells date from this time and were used by the Sumerians, in what is now Iraq, possibly to electroplate objects or for medicinal purposes. They were 1.1volt “jar” cells.

• Late 1790s: Alessandro Volta (Italian) built a battery of alternating zinc and copper (or silver?) disks arranged in a vertical pile.

• Between each pair of disks he placed a cardboard disk soaked in a salt solution. The invention was announced in 1800. Note: The word “volt” was named after him.

• 1802: Dr. William Cruickshank (British) designed the first battery that could be mass-produced. He used a wooden box that had grooves in it to hold the metal plates, filled it with an electrolyte solution and used cement to seal it.

• In 1859/60, Gaston Plante (French) invented the first battery that could be recharged. It was a lead acid “secondary” cell battery.

• Note: A primary cell is “non-rechargeable” and a secondary cell is “rechargeable”.
  
  
• For further historical and general information about batteries see Green Cars, Section 6 (The Battery).

10.3 Transmission

• W James (American) invented a basic three-speed transmission in 1832. Levassor and Panhard (French) invented the modern transmission and fitted it to their 1895 Panhard motorcar.

10.4 Carburettor

• The invention of the carburettor is often attributed to Wilhelm Maybach (German).

• He designed the carburettor that was fitted to an engine called the “Grandfather Clock” which Gottlieb Daimler produced in 1885.

• Maybach did not, however submit his patent until a decade later, in 1895.

• In 1893 Donat Banki and Janos Csonka (Hungarians) were the first to receive a patent for the invention of a carburettor.

• In 1902 George Schebler (American) patented and manufactured a carburettor called the “Schebler Carburetor”.

10.5 Electric Heater

• The first electric heater fitted to a car was invented in 1890 by Thomas Ahearn (Canadian).

10.6 Drive Shaft

• The drive shaft was invented by Louis Renault (French) in 1898.

10.7 Disc Brakes

• Disc brakes were invented by Frederick Lanchester (British) in 1901.

10.8 Fender (Bumper)

• The car fender (bumper) was invented by Frederick Simms (British) in 1901. The design was based on the railway engine buffers of that period.

10.9 Windscreen Wipers

• The first basic windscreen wipers were two brushes that were mechanically moved up and down the plate glass windshield. They were invented by J. H. Apjohn (American) in 1903.

• In the same year, Mary Anderson (American) devised a spring loaded “swinging arm” windscreen wiper (which was replaced by a mechanical arm in 1913). She patented her invention in 1905.

• These early mechanical devices had a major drawback. The driver had to use one hand to move a lever that operated the windscreen wipers, leaving the other hand to steer the car, operate the gearshift and also the brakes.

• In 1917 Dr. Ormand (Hawaiian) invented the automatic, electrically operated, windscreen wiper.

10.10 Ignition

• Charles Kettering (American) invented the electrical starter motor ignition system, testing the first system in a Cadillac car in February 1911.

• The following year the system was fitted to Cadillac cars

• The invention was well received because it did away with the sometimes dangerous hand crank starting of internal combustion engines.

• Kettering was granted a US patent for his invention in 1915.