Internal combustion engines date back to between the 10th and 13th centuries, when the first
rocket engines were invented in China. Following the first commercial
steam engine (a type of external combustion engine) in 1698, various efforts were made during the 18th century to develop equivalent internal combustion engines. In 1791, the English inventor
John Barber patented a
gas turbine. In 1794, Thomas Mead patented a gas engine. Also in 1794, Robert Street patented an internal-combustion engine, which was also the first to use liquid fuel (petroleum) and built an engine around that time. In 1798,
John Stevens designed the first American internal combustion engine. In 1807, French engineers
Nicéphore and
Claude Niépce ran a prototype internal combustion engine, using controlled dust explosions, the
Pyréolophore. This engine powered a boat on the river in France. The same year, the Swiss engineer
François Isaac de Rivaz built and patented a hydrogen and oxygen-powered internal-combustion engine. Fitted to a crude four-wheeled wagon,
François Isaac de Rivaz first drove it 100 metres in 1813, thus making history as the first car-like vehicle known to have been powered by an internal-combustion engine.
Samuel Brown patented the first internal combustion engine to be applied industrially in the United States in 1823. Brown also demonstrated a boat using his engine on the Thames in 1827, and an engine-driven carriage in 1828. Father
Eugenio Barsanti, an Italian engineer, together with
Felice Matteucci of Florence invented the first real internal combustion engine in 1853. Their patent request was granted in London on June 12, 1854, and published in London's Morning Journal under the title "Specification of Eugene Barsanti and Felix Matteucci, Obtaining Motive Power by the Explosion of Gasses". In 1860, Belgian
Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir produced a gas-fired internal combustion engine. In 1864,
Nicolaus Otto patented the first commercially successful gas engine.
George Brayton invented the first commercial liquid-fueled internal combustion engine in 1872. In 1876,
Nicolaus Otto, working with
Gottlieb Daimler and
Wilhelm Maybach, patented the compressed charge, four-stroke cycle engine. In 1879,
Karl Benz patented a reliable
two-stroke gas engine. In 1892,
Rudolf Diesel developed the first compressed charge, compression ignition engine. In 1954 German engineer
Felix Wankel patented a "pistonless" engine using an eccentric rotary design.
The first liquid-fuelled rocket was launched in 1926 by
Robert Goddard. The
Heinkel He 178 became the world's first
jet aircraft by 1939, followed by the first
ramjet engine in 1949 and the first
scramjet engine in 2004.
Prior to 1850
Types of farm equipment typically powered by early engines (scale models)
Before 100 AD: The
fire piston is invented in Southeast Asia, and its use is concentrated in
Austronesia. This device inspired the
Diesel engine, which also uses compression ignition (as opposed to
spark ignition).[1][2]
1780s: An "electric pistol", which used an electric spark to ignite hydrogen gas in an enclosed vessel, is invented by Italian chemist
Alessandro Volta.[4] This is possibly the first example of a
spark-ignition heat engine.
1791: The principle for a
gas turbine engine is described in the patent A Method for Rising Inflammable Air for the Purposes of Producing Motion and Facilitating Metallurgical Operations by British inventor
John Barber.
1794: A
reciprocating piston engine is built by Robert Street. This engine was fuelled by gas vapours, used the piston's
intake stroke to draw in outside air, and the air/fuel mixture was ignited by an external flame.[5] Another gas engine was also patented in 1794 by Thomas Mead.[6]
1807: One of the first known working internal combustion engines - called the
Pyréolophore - is built by French inventors
Claude Niépce and
Nicéphore Niépce. This single prototype engine used a series of controlled
dust explosions and was used to power a boat upstream in the river
Saône in France.
1807: The hydrogen-fuelled
De Rivaz engine is built by Swiss engineer
François Isaac de Rivaz and fitted to a wheeled carriage, possibly creating the first known automobile.[8] This prototype engine used spark-ignition (as per the 1780s Alessandro Volta design above).
1823: The concept of a gas vacuum engine is patented by British engineer
Samuel Brown. One of Brown's engines was used to pump water at a canal in London from 1830 to 1836.
1826: A patent for the principle of a "gas or vapor engine" is granted to American inventor
Samuel Morey.[9] The patent includes the first known design for a
carburetor.
1833: A patent for a double-acting gas
Lemuel Wellman Wright, UK
patent no. 6525, table-type gas engine. Double-acting gas engine, first record of water-jacketed cylinder.[10]
1838: A patent for the principle of a double-acting gas engine is granted to British inventor
William Barnett. This is the first known design to propose in-cylinder compression and the use of a
water jacket for cooling.[11]
1853–1857: A patent for the principle of the free-piston
Barsanti-Matteucci engine is granted to Italian mathematician
Eugenio Barsanti and engineer
Felice Matteucci. The design was intended to provide power by the vacuum in the combustion chamber pulling the piston downwards, following the explosion of a gas fuel within the combustion chamber.[12][13]
1860: Belgian-French[14] engineer
Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir invented an atmospheric (non-compression) gas engine, using a layout similar to a horizontal
double acting steam engine.[15] The design's patent was titled Moteur à air dilaté par combustion des gaz. Allegedly, in 1860, several of these engines were built and used commercially in Paris.[16]: p15 By 1867, about 280 units of the Lenoir engine had been built.
Friedrich Sass considers the Lenoir engine to be the first functional internal combustion engine.[16]: p11
1861: The principle for the
four-stroke engine is described by French engineer
Alphonse Beau de Rochas in the essay titled Nouvelles recherches sur les conditions pratiques de l'utilisation de la chaleur et en général de la force motrice. Avec application au chemin de fer et à la navigation. De Rochas applied for a patent, however it was declared invalid two years later.[16]: p56-58
1862: A prototype four-stroke engine, created from a modified Lenoir engine, is built by German engineers
Nicolaus Otto and Michael Zons. The engine was only able to run for a few minutes before it self-destructed.[16]: p23 [17]
1864: The first commercially successful internal combustion engine - a gas-fuelled atmospheric engine - is produced by German engineers
Eugen Langen and
Nicolaus Otto.[16]: p29-31 The engine won a gold medal at the Paris Exhibition in 1867[20] and was patented in 1868.[16]: p31 Fuel consumption of this engine was less than half that of the Lenoir and Hugon engines.[16]: p34-35
1865: The
Hugon engine - an improved version of the Lenoir engine with flame ignition, better fuel economy[21] and water injection into the cylinders for cooling - is introduced by French engineer Pierre Hugon. This engine was produced commercially for applications such as printing presses and patent offices.
1872: The first commercial liquid-fuelled engine, the
Brayton's Ready Motor was patented by American engineer George Brayton. This engine used constant pressure combustion and began commercial production in 1876.[16]: p413-414
1876: The first functional
Otto cycle engine - called the
Otto Silent Engine - is built by Nicholas Otto, Franz Rings and Herman Schumm at the German company
Deutz-AG-Gasmotorenfabrik. The engine compressed the air/fuel mixture before combustion, unlike the other atmospheric engines of the time. The engine was a single-cylinder unit that displaced 6.1 dm3, and was rated 3 PS (2,206 W) at 180/min, with a fuel consumption of 0.95 m3/PSh (1.29 m3/kWh).[16]: p43-44 Wilhelm Maybach later improved the engine by changing the connecting rod and piston design from trunk to
crosshead, so it could be put into series production.[16]: p45
1876: Otto applied for a patent on a stratified charge engine that would use the four-stroke principle. The patent was granted in 1876 in
Elsass-Lothringen, and transformed into a German Realm Patent in 1877 (DRP 532, 4 August 1877).[16]: p51-52
1885: The
Benz Patent-Motorwagen - often considered to be the first automobile[26] - is built. It was powered by a 0.55 kW (0.74 hp) single-cylinder four-stroke engine.[27]
1888: The
de Laval nozzle - used in various rocket engines and jet engines - is invented by Swedish engineer
Gustaf de Laval.
1888: A
rotary engine (not to be confused with a pistonless
Wankel engine) is patented by French inventor Félix Millet. This five-cylinder engine was installed in the rear wheel of a bicycle for use in the 1894-1895
Millet motorcycle.
1889: The first aluminium engine block is created.[33]
1891: The
Hornsby-Akroyd oil engine - often considered a predecessor to the diesel engine - begins production. The engine was designed by English inventor Herbert Akroyd Stuart.
1897: The first functional diesel engine - called the
Motor 250/400 and designed by Rudolf Diesel - is built by
Maschinenfabrik Augsburg in Germany.
1897: The first
flat engine is built by Carl Benz. The configuration used later became known as a
boxer engine, due to the pistons "punching" back and forth simultaneously.[34]
1903: The first
gas turbine that was able to produce more power than needed to run its own components is built by Norwegian inventor
Ægidius Elling.[36]
1926: Theoretical improvements in the efficiency of
jet engines are proposed in the research paper Aerodynamic Theory of Turbine Design by English engineer
Alan Arnold Griffith. Among the suggestions are the design for a
turboprop and changing the turbine blades from a flat profile into an
airfoil.
1942: The first operational
jet engine-powered airplane - the German Messerschmitt Me 262 fighter-bomber airplane - completes its first flight.
1949: The first airplane powered by a
ramjet engine - the Leduc 0.10 - completes a test flight. The ramjet engine was designed by French engineer
René Leduc.
1952: The first
fuel injection system for a production passenger car - a mechanical injection system produced by
Robert Bosch GmbH - is used in the German
Goliath GP700 small sedan.
1957: The first working prototype of the pistonless
Wankel engine (sometimes called a rotary engine) is built by German engineer
Felix Wankel.
1957: First usage of electronic fuel injection (EFI) in a production passenger car, using the American
Bendix Electrojector system.
1983:
Isuzu builds a
ceramic engine that runs on diesel and consumes half the fuel of other comparable engines of the time. Ceramic was used as the material in the cylinders of the engine.[53][54]
1998: From 1998 to 2000, the
McLarenFormula One team used
Mercedes-Benz engines with beryllium-aluminium-
alloy pistons.[62] The use of beryllium engine components was banned following a protest by
Scuderia Ferrari.[63] At one point the material was also used in cylinder liners.[64]
2004: The first
scramjet-powered airplane - the NASA X-43 prototype - completes a test flight.
2006: Mercedes-Benz adopts the use of twin-wire arc spraying to produce highly smooth cylinder liners.[65]
2006: The
BMW Hydrogen 7 is offered with a hydrogen internal combustion engine[66]
2008:
BMW N63 was the first production Hot vee turbocharged engine, used in the US-made
BMW X6 since 2008.[67]
2008: Ford publishes the use of a Plasma Transferred Wire Arc process for making highly smooth cylinder liners, used in mass production in 2015.[68][69]
2011: Mitsubishi develops a gas turbine with a combustion temperature of 1600°C.[70]
2013: General Electric starts development of the
GE9X with a compression ratio of 61:1.[71]
2014:
Liquidpiston shows a prototype of an engine with a design similar to an inverted wankel engine: The combustion chamber is triangular while the rotor is oval.[72]
2017:
Achates Power shows a maximum brake thermal efficiency of 55 percent in a reciprocating engine.[77]
2020:
Maserati introduces pre-chamber ignition in its commercially available Nettuno engine.[78][79]
2021: During the
COP26 conference, 24 countries committed to all new cars sold being
zero emission vehicles (effectively banning the production of petrol-powered or diesel-powered cars) by the year 2040.
2022: The Avadi MA-250 engine features a design in which the piston and connecting rods rotate during engine operation.[citation needed]
^Spies, Albert (1892–95).
Modern gas and oil engines. New York, The Cassier's magazine company – via Internet Archive. in 1794, Thomas Mead and Robert Street both obtained patents in England for gas or vapor engines, Mead proposing to raise the piston in his engine cylinder by the ignition of a gaseous, explosive mixture and to utilize for the down-stroke both the weight of the piston and the partial vacuum formed underneath it.
^Dugald Clerk, "Gas and Oil Engines", Longman Green & Co, (7th Edition) 1897, pp 3-5.
^Dugald Clerk, "Gas and Oil Engines", Longman Green & Co, 1897.
^"The Historical Documents". Barsanti e Matteucci. Fondazione Barsanti & Matteucci. 2009. Archived from
the original on 25 February 2017. Retrieved 1 November 2013.
^Ricci, G.; et al. (2012). "The First Internal Combustion Engine". In Starr, Fred; et al. (eds.). The Piston Engine Revolution. London: Newcomen Society. pp. 23–44.
ISBN978-0-904685-15-2.
^Taylor, Michael J.H. (1983). Milestones of Flight. Jane's.
ISBN9780710602589.
^
abcdefghijklmFriedrich Sass: Geschichte des deutschen Verbrennungsmotorenbaus von 1860 bis 1918, Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg 1962,
ISBN978-3-662-11843-6
^Rudolf Krebs: Fünf Jahrtausende Radfahrzeuge: 2 Jahrhunderte Straßenverkehr mit Wärmeenergie. Über 100 Jahre Automobile. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg 1994,
ISBN9783642935534, p. 203
^Hendrickson III, Kenneth E. (2014). The Encyclopedia of the Industrial Revolution in World History, Volume 3. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 236.
ISBN978-0810888883.
^Bakken, Lars E.; Jordal, Kristin; Syverud, Elisabet; Veer, Timot (2004). "Centenary of the First Gas Turbine to Give Net Power Output: A Tribute to Ægidius Elling" (Technical report). The American Society of Mechanical Engineers. pp. 83–88.
doi:
10.1115/GT2004-53211.
^Koch, Jeff (23 September 2018).
"Cadillac V-8-6-4". Hemmings. US. Retrieved 25 December 2023.
^Smithsonian Institution (2018).
"Gnome Omega No. 1 Rotary Engine". National Air and Space Museum. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution. Archived from
the original on 10 July 2018. Retrieved 17 August 2018.
^Alegi, Gregory (15 January 2014). "Secondo's Slow Burner, Campini Caproni and the C.C.2". The Aviation Historian. No. 6. United Kingdom. p. 76.
ISSN2051-1930.
Internal combustion engines date back to between the 10th and 13th centuries, when the first
rocket engines were invented in China. Following the first commercial
steam engine (a type of external combustion engine) in 1698, various efforts were made during the 18th century to develop equivalent internal combustion engines. In 1791, the English inventor
John Barber patented a
gas turbine. In 1794, Thomas Mead patented a gas engine. Also in 1794, Robert Street patented an internal-combustion engine, which was also the first to use liquid fuel (petroleum) and built an engine around that time. In 1798,
John Stevens designed the first American internal combustion engine. In 1807, French engineers
Nicéphore and
Claude Niépce ran a prototype internal combustion engine, using controlled dust explosions, the
Pyréolophore. This engine powered a boat on the river in France. The same year, the Swiss engineer
François Isaac de Rivaz built and patented a hydrogen and oxygen-powered internal-combustion engine. Fitted to a crude four-wheeled wagon,
François Isaac de Rivaz first drove it 100 metres in 1813, thus making history as the first car-like vehicle known to have been powered by an internal-combustion engine.
Samuel Brown patented the first internal combustion engine to be applied industrially in the United States in 1823. Brown also demonstrated a boat using his engine on the Thames in 1827, and an engine-driven carriage in 1828. Father
Eugenio Barsanti, an Italian engineer, together with
Felice Matteucci of Florence invented the first real internal combustion engine in 1853. Their patent request was granted in London on June 12, 1854, and published in London's Morning Journal under the title "Specification of Eugene Barsanti and Felix Matteucci, Obtaining Motive Power by the Explosion of Gasses". In 1860, Belgian
Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir produced a gas-fired internal combustion engine. In 1864,
Nicolaus Otto patented the first commercially successful gas engine.
George Brayton invented the first commercial liquid-fueled internal combustion engine in 1872. In 1876,
Nicolaus Otto, working with
Gottlieb Daimler and
Wilhelm Maybach, patented the compressed charge, four-stroke cycle engine. In 1879,
Karl Benz patented a reliable
two-stroke gas engine. In 1892,
Rudolf Diesel developed the first compressed charge, compression ignition engine. In 1954 German engineer
Felix Wankel patented a "pistonless" engine using an eccentric rotary design.
The first liquid-fuelled rocket was launched in 1926 by
Robert Goddard. The
Heinkel He 178 became the world's first
jet aircraft by 1939, followed by the first
ramjet engine in 1949 and the first
scramjet engine in 2004.
Prior to 1850
Types of farm equipment typically powered by early engines (scale models)
Before 100 AD: The
fire piston is invented in Southeast Asia, and its use is concentrated in
Austronesia. This device inspired the
Diesel engine, which also uses compression ignition (as opposed to
spark ignition).[1][2]
1780s: An "electric pistol", which used an electric spark to ignite hydrogen gas in an enclosed vessel, is invented by Italian chemist
Alessandro Volta.[4] This is possibly the first example of a
spark-ignition heat engine.
1791: The principle for a
gas turbine engine is described in the patent A Method for Rising Inflammable Air for the Purposes of Producing Motion and Facilitating Metallurgical Operations by British inventor
John Barber.
1794: A
reciprocating piston engine is built by Robert Street. This engine was fuelled by gas vapours, used the piston's
intake stroke to draw in outside air, and the air/fuel mixture was ignited by an external flame.[5] Another gas engine was also patented in 1794 by Thomas Mead.[6]
1807: One of the first known working internal combustion engines - called the
Pyréolophore - is built by French inventors
Claude Niépce and
Nicéphore Niépce. This single prototype engine used a series of controlled
dust explosions and was used to power a boat upstream in the river
Saône in France.
1807: The hydrogen-fuelled
De Rivaz engine is built by Swiss engineer
François Isaac de Rivaz and fitted to a wheeled carriage, possibly creating the first known automobile.[8] This prototype engine used spark-ignition (as per the 1780s Alessandro Volta design above).
1823: The concept of a gas vacuum engine is patented by British engineer
Samuel Brown. One of Brown's engines was used to pump water at a canal in London from 1830 to 1836.
1826: A patent for the principle of a "gas or vapor engine" is granted to American inventor
Samuel Morey.[9] The patent includes the first known design for a
carburetor.
1833: A patent for a double-acting gas
Lemuel Wellman Wright, UK
patent no. 6525, table-type gas engine. Double-acting gas engine, first record of water-jacketed cylinder.[10]
1838: A patent for the principle of a double-acting gas engine is granted to British inventor
William Barnett. This is the first known design to propose in-cylinder compression and the use of a
water jacket for cooling.[11]
1853–1857: A patent for the principle of the free-piston
Barsanti-Matteucci engine is granted to Italian mathematician
Eugenio Barsanti and engineer
Felice Matteucci. The design was intended to provide power by the vacuum in the combustion chamber pulling the piston downwards, following the explosion of a gas fuel within the combustion chamber.[12][13]
1860: Belgian-French[14] engineer
Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir invented an atmospheric (non-compression) gas engine, using a layout similar to a horizontal
double acting steam engine.[15] The design's patent was titled Moteur à air dilaté par combustion des gaz. Allegedly, in 1860, several of these engines were built and used commercially in Paris.[16]: p15 By 1867, about 280 units of the Lenoir engine had been built.
Friedrich Sass considers the Lenoir engine to be the first functional internal combustion engine.[16]: p11
1861: The principle for the
four-stroke engine is described by French engineer
Alphonse Beau de Rochas in the essay titled Nouvelles recherches sur les conditions pratiques de l'utilisation de la chaleur et en général de la force motrice. Avec application au chemin de fer et à la navigation. De Rochas applied for a patent, however it was declared invalid two years later.[16]: p56-58
1862: A prototype four-stroke engine, created from a modified Lenoir engine, is built by German engineers
Nicolaus Otto and Michael Zons. The engine was only able to run for a few minutes before it self-destructed.[16]: p23 [17]
1864: The first commercially successful internal combustion engine - a gas-fuelled atmospheric engine - is produced by German engineers
Eugen Langen and
Nicolaus Otto.[16]: p29-31 The engine won a gold medal at the Paris Exhibition in 1867[20] and was patented in 1868.[16]: p31 Fuel consumption of this engine was less than half that of the Lenoir and Hugon engines.[16]: p34-35
1865: The
Hugon engine - an improved version of the Lenoir engine with flame ignition, better fuel economy[21] and water injection into the cylinders for cooling - is introduced by French engineer Pierre Hugon. This engine was produced commercially for applications such as printing presses and patent offices.
1872: The first commercial liquid-fuelled engine, the
Brayton's Ready Motor was patented by American engineer George Brayton. This engine used constant pressure combustion and began commercial production in 1876.[16]: p413-414
1876: The first functional
Otto cycle engine - called the
Otto Silent Engine - is built by Nicholas Otto, Franz Rings and Herman Schumm at the German company
Deutz-AG-Gasmotorenfabrik. The engine compressed the air/fuel mixture before combustion, unlike the other atmospheric engines of the time. The engine was a single-cylinder unit that displaced 6.1 dm3, and was rated 3 PS (2,206 W) at 180/min, with a fuel consumption of 0.95 m3/PSh (1.29 m3/kWh).[16]: p43-44 Wilhelm Maybach later improved the engine by changing the connecting rod and piston design from trunk to
crosshead, so it could be put into series production.[16]: p45
1876: Otto applied for a patent on a stratified charge engine that would use the four-stroke principle. The patent was granted in 1876 in
Elsass-Lothringen, and transformed into a German Realm Patent in 1877 (DRP 532, 4 August 1877).[16]: p51-52
1885: The
Benz Patent-Motorwagen - often considered to be the first automobile[26] - is built. It was powered by a 0.55 kW (0.74 hp) single-cylinder four-stroke engine.[27]
1888: The
de Laval nozzle - used in various rocket engines and jet engines - is invented by Swedish engineer
Gustaf de Laval.
1888: A
rotary engine (not to be confused with a pistonless
Wankel engine) is patented by French inventor Félix Millet. This five-cylinder engine was installed in the rear wheel of a bicycle for use in the 1894-1895
Millet motorcycle.
1889: The first aluminium engine block is created.[33]
1891: The
Hornsby-Akroyd oil engine - often considered a predecessor to the diesel engine - begins production. The engine was designed by English inventor Herbert Akroyd Stuart.
1897: The first functional diesel engine - called the
Motor 250/400 and designed by Rudolf Diesel - is built by
Maschinenfabrik Augsburg in Germany.
1897: The first
flat engine is built by Carl Benz. The configuration used later became known as a
boxer engine, due to the pistons "punching" back and forth simultaneously.[34]
1903: The first
gas turbine that was able to produce more power than needed to run its own components is built by Norwegian inventor
Ægidius Elling.[36]
1926: Theoretical improvements in the efficiency of
jet engines are proposed in the research paper Aerodynamic Theory of Turbine Design by English engineer
Alan Arnold Griffith. Among the suggestions are the design for a
turboprop and changing the turbine blades from a flat profile into an
airfoil.
1942: The first operational
jet engine-powered airplane - the German Messerschmitt Me 262 fighter-bomber airplane - completes its first flight.
1949: The first airplane powered by a
ramjet engine - the Leduc 0.10 - completes a test flight. The ramjet engine was designed by French engineer
René Leduc.
1952: The first
fuel injection system for a production passenger car - a mechanical injection system produced by
Robert Bosch GmbH - is used in the German
Goliath GP700 small sedan.
1957: The first working prototype of the pistonless
Wankel engine (sometimes called a rotary engine) is built by German engineer
Felix Wankel.
1957: First usage of electronic fuel injection (EFI) in a production passenger car, using the American
Bendix Electrojector system.
1983:
Isuzu builds a
ceramic engine that runs on diesel and consumes half the fuel of other comparable engines of the time. Ceramic was used as the material in the cylinders of the engine.[53][54]
1998: From 1998 to 2000, the
McLarenFormula One team used
Mercedes-Benz engines with beryllium-aluminium-
alloy pistons.[62] The use of beryllium engine components was banned following a protest by
Scuderia Ferrari.[63] At one point the material was also used in cylinder liners.[64]
2004: The first
scramjet-powered airplane - the NASA X-43 prototype - completes a test flight.
2006: Mercedes-Benz adopts the use of twin-wire arc spraying to produce highly smooth cylinder liners.[65]
2006: The
BMW Hydrogen 7 is offered with a hydrogen internal combustion engine[66]
2008:
BMW N63 was the first production Hot vee turbocharged engine, used in the US-made
BMW X6 since 2008.[67]
2008: Ford publishes the use of a Plasma Transferred Wire Arc process for making highly smooth cylinder liners, used in mass production in 2015.[68][69]
2011: Mitsubishi develops a gas turbine with a combustion temperature of 1600°C.[70]
2013: General Electric starts development of the
GE9X with a compression ratio of 61:1.[71]
2014:
Liquidpiston shows a prototype of an engine with a design similar to an inverted wankel engine: The combustion chamber is triangular while the rotor is oval.[72]
2017:
Achates Power shows a maximum brake thermal efficiency of 55 percent in a reciprocating engine.[77]
2020:
Maserati introduces pre-chamber ignition in its commercially available Nettuno engine.[78][79]
2021: During the
COP26 conference, 24 countries committed to all new cars sold being
zero emission vehicles (effectively banning the production of petrol-powered or diesel-powered cars) by the year 2040.
2022: The Avadi MA-250 engine features a design in which the piston and connecting rods rotate during engine operation.[citation needed]
^Spies, Albert (1892–95).
Modern gas and oil engines. New York, The Cassier's magazine company – via Internet Archive. in 1794, Thomas Mead and Robert Street both obtained patents in England for gas or vapor engines, Mead proposing to raise the piston in his engine cylinder by the ignition of a gaseous, explosive mixture and to utilize for the down-stroke both the weight of the piston and the partial vacuum formed underneath it.
^Dugald Clerk, "Gas and Oil Engines", Longman Green & Co, (7th Edition) 1897, pp 3-5.
^Dugald Clerk, "Gas and Oil Engines", Longman Green & Co, 1897.
^"The Historical Documents". Barsanti e Matteucci. Fondazione Barsanti & Matteucci. 2009. Archived from
the original on 25 February 2017. Retrieved 1 November 2013.
^Ricci, G.; et al. (2012). "The First Internal Combustion Engine". In Starr, Fred; et al. (eds.). The Piston Engine Revolution. London: Newcomen Society. pp. 23–44.
ISBN978-0-904685-15-2.
^Taylor, Michael J.H. (1983). Milestones of Flight. Jane's.
ISBN9780710602589.
^
abcdefghijklmFriedrich Sass: Geschichte des deutschen Verbrennungsmotorenbaus von 1860 bis 1918, Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg 1962,
ISBN978-3-662-11843-6
^Rudolf Krebs: Fünf Jahrtausende Radfahrzeuge: 2 Jahrhunderte Straßenverkehr mit Wärmeenergie. Über 100 Jahre Automobile. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg 1994,
ISBN9783642935534, p. 203
^Hendrickson III, Kenneth E. (2014). The Encyclopedia of the Industrial Revolution in World History, Volume 3. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 236.
ISBN978-0810888883.
^Bakken, Lars E.; Jordal, Kristin; Syverud, Elisabet; Veer, Timot (2004). "Centenary of the First Gas Turbine to Give Net Power Output: A Tribute to Ægidius Elling" (Technical report). The American Society of Mechanical Engineers. pp. 83–88.
doi:
10.1115/GT2004-53211.
^Koch, Jeff (23 September 2018).
"Cadillac V-8-6-4". Hemmings. US. Retrieved 25 December 2023.
^Smithsonian Institution (2018).
"Gnome Omega No. 1 Rotary Engine". National Air and Space Museum. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution. Archived from
the original on 10 July 2018. Retrieved 17 August 2018.
^Alegi, Gregory (15 January 2014). "Secondo's Slow Burner, Campini Caproni and the C.C.2". The Aviation Historian. No. 6. United Kingdom. p. 76.
ISSN2051-1930.