History of the Gasoline Engine
Gasoline engines have been conceived of for hundreds of years. While designs for internal combustion engines that feature a combination of fuel and air were available, it wasn't until the late 1800s that workable examples were created. Since the initial introduction of gasoline engines, a number of modifications have been made to improve their efficiency.
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Concept
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Both Arab scholar Abu Al-Jazari and inventor Leonardo da Vinci first designed plans for piston-driven engines powered by gasoline and air in 1206 and 1509, respectively.
Industrialization
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The first person to patent the concept of a gasoline engine was Samuel Brown in 1823. His industrial-strength engine was not efficient, but it was brought into factories.
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German Influence
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The first efficient gasoline engine was developed by Gottlieb Daimler and Nikolaus Otto in 1876. The design was implemented into one of the first automobiles by Karl Benz in 1885.
Efficiency
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The next step in efficiency, developed by James Atkinson in 1882, was to adjust the intake and expansion volumes of the air-gas mixture. This modification made gasoline engines much more cost-effective for mass transit.
Modern Development
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In 1916, Auguste Rateau designed a device known as a turbocharger, which used exhaust-powered compressors to improve the performance of the gasoline engine.
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Resources
- Photo Credit DMahalko, Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0, GNU Free Documentation License, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Otto_Engines_-_WMSTR_Montage_2.ogg
