New engine runs on fire, not water

Today, in 1860, the first internal combustion engine ran

By PH Staff / Monday, 24 January 2005 / Loading comments

It's the anniversary of the first ever internal combustion engine. Today, 144 years ago in 1860, Belgian inventor Etienne Lenoir was issued a patent for the first successful internal-combustion engine.

Lenoir's engine was a converted steam engine that burned a mixture of coal gas and air. Its two-stroke action was simple but reliable -- many of Lenoir's engines were still working after 20 years of use. His first engines powered simple machines like pumps and bellows.

However, in 1862, Lenoir built his first automobile powered by an internal combustion engine -- a vehicle that could make a six-mile trip in two to three hours. It wasn't a practical vehicle - it was very inefficient and noisy -- but it was the beginning of the automobile industry.

Lenoir's engine failed to come up to initial expectations and fell suddenly from popularity. This was due, partly to the troublesome electrical ignition system, but mainly to the high consumption of, what was then, expensive gas. Some 100 cubic feet of gas were burnt per horsepower per hour. It also needed vast quantities of cooling water and, even so, the heat generated was so great that, unless the bearings were copiously oiled, the engine seized. Lenoir died in 1900.

Others, such as Germany's Nikolaus August Otto, refined it by adding a carburettor. Otto went on to build the first four-stroke piston cycle internal combustion engine, of which he sold 30,000 examples. That's why the classic internal combustion sequence is called the Otto cycle.