Internal combustion engine

An internal combustion engine is an engine that is powered by the expansion of hot combustion products of fuel directly acting within an engine. A piston internal combustion engine works by burning hydrocarbon or hydrogen fuel that presses on a piston; and a jet engine works as the hot combustion products press on the interior parts of the nozzle and combustion chamber, directly accelerating the engine forwards. The rotary combustion engine uses a rotor instead of reciprocating pistons.

History

In the broadest sense of the term, the internal combustion engine can be said to have been invented in China, with the invention of fireworks during the Song dynasty (some sources put the invention a thousand years earlier still). English inventor Sir Samuel Morland used gunpowder to drive water pumps in the 17th century. For more conventional, reciprocating internal combustion engines the fundamental theory for two-stroke engines was established by Sadi Carnot in France in 1824, whilst the American Samuel Morey received a patent on April 1, 1826 for a "Gas Or Vapor Engine".

Related Topics:
China - Fireworks - Song dynasty - English - Samuel Morland - Gunpowder - 17th century - Sadi Carnot - Samuel Morey - Patent - April 1 - 1826

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Italians Eugenio Barsanti and Felice Matteucci patented a first working efficient version of an internal combustion engine in 1854 in London (pt. Num. 1072). Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir produced in 1860 a gas-fired internal combustion engine not dissimilar in appearance to a steam beam engine. Nikolaus Otto working with Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in the 1870's developed the four-stroke cycle (Otto cycle) engine.

Related Topics:
Eugenio Barsanti - Felice Matteucci - Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir - Steam - Beam engine - Nikolaus Otto - Gottlieb Daimler - Wilhelm Maybach - Four-stroke cycle

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~