HISTRY OF INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINS

The Abbé Hautefeuille described in 1678, an engine for raising water, in which the motive power was obtained by burning gunpowder in a cylinder and cooling the remaining gases with water. The idea was similar to that expressed in the early forms of the steam engine, but Hautefeuille does not appear to have preformed any actual experiments. The same idea was suggested by Huygens in 1680, but experiments made by him and later by Denis Papinwere not attended by success and were abandoned, though they are interesting as representing the first actual attempts at the building of internal-combustion engine

A long period of inaction followed. The discovery of the distillation of gas from coal and the demonstration, by Murdock in 1792, of the application of coal gas for lighting purposes roused new interest in the subject. The introduction of the steam engine for commercial purposes about this time was also a powerful incentive, though for many decades the steam engine was too firmly intrenched and fitted the existing conditions too well to afford much opportunity for competition. About 1791 John Barber explained in a patent how a wheel with vanes could be driven by the released pressure of an orifice close to the vanes. In the century and a quarter that have elapsed since that day, no economical gas turbine has been constructed.

The first internal-combustion engine, according to our modern ideas, was that of Robert Street, patented in England in 1794. In this the bottom of a cylinder was heated by fire and a small quantity of tar or turpentine was projected into the hot part of the cylinder, forming a vapor. The rising of the piston sucked in a quantity of air to form the explosion mixture and also flame for ignition. The cycle was that which was used later by Lenoir in the first commercially successful engine. About 1800 Phillippe Lebon patented in France an engine using compressed air, compressed gas and electricity for ignition. Some authorities believe that his early death retarded the development of the internal-combustion engine half a century, as all of the features mentioned are necessary to the highly efficient engines of today, though they did not come into use for three-quarters of a century after his death