The very first self-powered road
vehicles were powered by steam engines and by that definition
Nicolas Joseph Cugnot of France built the first
automobile in 1769 - recognized by the British Royal
Automobile Club and the Automobile Club de France as being the
first. So why do so many history books say that the automobile
was invented by either Gottlieb Daimler or Karl Benz? It is
because both Daimler and Benz invented highly successful and
practical gasoline-powered vehicles that ushered in the age of
modern automobiles. Daimler and Benz invented cars that looked
and worked like the cars we use today. However, it is unfair
to say that either man invented "the"
automobile.
History of the Internal Combustion Engine - The Heart
of the Automobile
An
internal combustion engine is any engine that uses the
explosive combustion of fuel to push a piston within a
cylinder - the piston's movement turns a crankshaft
that then turns the car wheels via a chain or a drive shaft.
The different types of fuel commonly used
for car combustion engines are gasoline (or petrol), diesel,
and kerosene.
A
brief outline of the history of the internal combustion engine
includes the following highlights:
- 1680 - Dutch physicist, Christian Huygens
designed (but never built) an internal combustion engine
that was be fueled with gunpowder.
- 1807 - Francois Isaac de Rivaz of Switzerland
invented an internal combustion engine that used a mixture
of hydrogen and oxygen for fuel. Rivaz designed a car for
his engine - the first internal combustion powered
automobile. However, this was a very unsuccessful
vehicle.
- 1824 - English engineer, Samuel
Brown adapted an old Newcomen steam engine to burn gas, and
he used it to briefly power a vehicle up Shooter's Hill in
London.
- 1858 -
Belgian-born engineer,
Jean Joseph Étienne Lenoir invented and
patented (1860) a double-acting, electric spark-ignition
internal combustion engine fueled by coal gas. In 1863, Lenoir attached an improved
engine (using petroleum and a primitive carburetor) to a
three-wheeled wagon that managed to complete an historic
fifty-mile road trip. (See image at top)
- 1862 - Alphonse Beau de Rochas, a
French civil engineer, patented
but did not build a four-stroke engine (French patent
#52,593, January 16, 1862).
- 1864 - Austrian engineer, Siegfried
Marcus*, built a one-cylinder engine with a crude
carburetor, and attached his engine to a cart for a rocky
500-foot drive. It was the world's first gasoline-powered
vehicle. Several year later, Marcus was able to design a
vehicle that briefly ran at 10 mph that some historians
consider was the forerunner of the modern
automobile.
- 1873 - George Brayton, an American
engineer, developed an unsuccessful two-stroke kerosene
engine (it used two external pumping cylinders). However, it was considered the first
safe and practical oil engine.
- 1866 - German engineers, Eugen Langen and
Nikolaus August Otto improved on Lenoir's and de Rochas'
designs and invented a more efficient gas
engine.
- 1876 - Nikolaus August Otto invented and
later patented a successful four-stroke engine, known as the
“Otto cycle.”
- 1876 - The first successful two-stroke engine
was invented by Sir Dougald Clerk.
- 1883 - French
engineer, Edouard Delamare-Debouteville, built a
single-cylinder four-stroke engine that ran on stove gas. It
is not certain if he did indeed build a car, however,
Delamare-Debouteville's designs were very advanced for the
time - ahead of both Daimler and Benz in some ways at least
on paper.
- 1885 - Gottlieb Daimler invented what
is often recognized as the prototype of the modern gas
engine - with a vertical cylinder, and with gasoline
injected through a carburetor (patented in 1887). Daimler
first built a two-wheeled vehicle the "Reitwagen"
(Riding Carriage) with this engine and a year later built
the world's first four-wheeled motor vehicle.
- 1886 - On
January 29, Karl Benz received the first patent (DRP No.
37435) for a gas-fueled car.
- 1889 - Daimler built an improved four-stroke
engine with mushroom-shaped valves and two V-slant
cylinders.
- 1890 - Wilhelm Maybach built the
first four-cylinder, four-stroke engine.
Engine design and car design were integral
activities, almost all of the engine designers mentioned above
also designed cars, and a few went on to become major
manufacturers of automobiles. All of these inventors
and more made notable improvements in the design of the
internal combustion vehicles.
The
Importance of Nicolaus Otto
One of the most important landmarks
in engine design comes from Nicolaus August Otto who in 1876
invented an effective gas motor engine. Otto built the first
practical four-stroke internal combustion engine called the
"Otto Cycle Engine," and as soon as he had completed his
engine, he built it into a motorcycle. Otto’s contributions
were very historically significant, it was his four-stoke
engine that was universally adopted for all liquid-fueled
automobiles going forward.
The
Importance of Karl Benz
In 1885, German mechanical
engineer, Karl Benz designed and built the world's first
practical automobile to be powered by an internal-combustion
engine. On January 29, 1886, Benz received the first patent
(DRP No. 37435) for a gas-fueled car. It was a three-wheeler;
Benz built his first four-wheeled car in 1891. Benz &
Cie., the company started by the inventor, became the world's
largest manufacturer of automobiles by 1900. Benz was the
first inventor to integrate an internal combustion engine with
a chassis - designing both togther. (Learn more about Karl
Benz
 The Importance of Gottlieb
Daimler
In 1885, Gottlieb Daimler
(together with his design partner Wilhelm Maybach) took Otto's
internal combustion engine a step further and patented what is
generally recognized as the prototype of the modern gas
engine. Daimler's connection to Otto was a direct one; Daimler
worked as technical director of Deutz Gasmotorenfabrik, which
Nikolaus Otto co-owned in 1872. There is some controversy as
to who built the first motorcycle
Otto or Daimler.
The
1885 Daimler-Maybach engine was small, lightweight, fast, used
a gasoline-injected carburetor, and had a vertical cylinder.
The size, speed, and efficiency of the engine allowed for a
revolution in car design. On March 8, 1886, Daimler
took a stagecoach and adapted it to hold his engine, thereby
designing the world's first four-wheeled automobile.
Daimler is considered the first inventor to have invented
a practical internal-combustion engine.
In
1889, Daimler invented a V-slanted two cylinder, four-stroke
engine with mushroom-shaped valves. Just like Otto's 1876
engine, Daimler's new engine set the basis for all car engines
going forward. Also in 1889, Daimler and Maybach built their
first automobile from the ground up, they did not adapt
another purpose vehicle as they had always been done
previously. The new Daimler automobile had a four-speed
transmission and obtained speeds of 10 mph.
Daimler founded the Daimler Motoren-Gesellschaft
in 1890 to manufacture his designs. Eleven years later,
Wilhelm Maybach designed the Mercedes automobile.
(Learn more about Gottlieb
Daimler & Wilhelm Maybach)
*If Siegfried Marcus built his
second car in 1875 and it was as claimed, it would have been
the first vehicle powered by a four-cycle engine and the first
to use gasoline as a fuel, the first having a carburetor for a
gasoline engine and the first having a magneto ignition.
However, the only existing evidence indicates that the vehicle
was built circa 1888/89 - too late to be
first.
BACK TO CONTENTS
|
