Although not built, an internal combustion engine was designed in the 17th century. Who designed it and how was it fuelled?

Buck540

Efforts to design and build an internal combustion engine go back to the 17th century, when a few inventors attempted to build engines fueled by gunpowder. This was a reasonable venture, as a gun is simply a kind of one-stroke engine, but their efforts were in vain. In the 19th century, many inventors worked on a variety of internal combustion engines, some of them attaining a modest degree of success. In 1858, Christian Reithmann (1818–1909) was using a gas engine to power machine tools in his workshop. Even more significant were the engines designed and built in France by Etienne Lenoir (1822–1900). These engines produced as much as 12 horsepower and had a higher thermal efficiency than steam engines of equivalent size. Lenoir's engine used a two-stroke cycle and was double-acting; a mixture of air and illuminating gas entered while the piston was beginning to move away from the end of the cylinder. It was then ignited by a spark, which caused the piston to travel the remaining distance. The process was repeated at the opposite end of the cylinder so that the power stroke also served to exhaust the spent mixture on the other side of the piston. The engine thus provided two power strokes per crankshaft revolution, but total power was limited because the air-gas mixture was not compressed. The lack of compression diminished power and efficiency, but over a 5-year period, Lenoir was able to sell as many as 400 engines for industrial uses. Feb 25 05, 10:18 AM

gmackematix

Yay Buck for gunpowder. The inventor I had in mind was associated with waves, clocks and probability theory. And if we think diesel engines are noisy, imagine what one of those would have been like. Feb 25 05, 8:45 PM

mothersmaiden

I'm pretty fermat the blase exhaustion of pascal. Feb 26 05, 3:44 AM

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In 1885 this man built the first car powered by an internal combustion engine. What was his name? Who designed the Airbus A380? Who was the first to win a World Drivers Championship in a car he designed and built himself? He designed and build an opera house. Then he built the sculptures and designed the interior of that opera house. And sice that wasn't enough he also wrote an opera to be performed there. Finally, he conducted and starred in the opera in his opera house. Where is this opera house, what is the opera in question, and who was the man who created it all?

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