Combustion engine, propellant with expiration date

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From the time Nicéphore Niépce powered a boat with a motor in 1807 until the European Commission banned its sale in 2035, the revolutionary invention must have been 228 years old.

The famous quote attributed to Isaac Neoton – “if I have seen in the distance, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants” – goes back much further in time, his first appearance was in the 12th century, with the French Neoplatonist philosopher Bernard of Chartres. The idea has come to symbolize scientific progress carried out by gradual and iterative improvements; applicable to almost every discipline, but especially to the automotive industry.

In the case of internal combustion engines, the constituent elements can be traced back millennia ago: the fire piston, a device for compressing air and making it easier to start a fire, already existed in prehistoric times in Southeast Asia and the connecting rod to a crankshaft, fundamental mechanism for the movement of the piston, first appeared in the Roman water mills of the third century.

Leonardo da Vinci himself
theorized the atmospheric propellant in 1509, but man already had experience with the storage, use and transport of liquid fuels, as was the case with Greek fire, the favorite naval weapon of the Byzantine Empire since the year 673.

One of the first recorded combustion engines is that of the French Nicéphore Niépce, in 1807. The inventor associated it with an inland vessel and sailed with it down the Saône River. That same year, Napoleon Bonaparte granted him a patent. However, its low power and difficult fuel – it used a mixture of dry herbs with charcoal – made it unviable commercially, and Niépce would go on to develop photography with Daguerre.

Until the middle of the 19th century,
technical progress was made (1839: Babbitt metal, used in pistons) and theoretically (1824: Carnot publishes the ‘Theory of thermodynamics of thermal engines’), but it is from 1850, when oil and its derivatives are widely marketed, when progress becomes unstoppable.

Since 1956, Pietro Benini’s static combustion engines have begun to replace steam engines in some factories. Four years later, the Belgian Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir creates the combustion engine with cylinders, connecting rods, pistons and it becomes a commercial success. That same year, the Roots brothers design an air pump to heat the air in foundries. This system would form the basis of the superchargers, increasing the power of the thrusters.

The award for motorcycle innovation of the 1860s undoubtedly goes to the German Nikolaus Otto. Based on Lenoir’s model, he managed to create several versions of a stationary gas engine. In 1867, he received the first prize at the World Exhibition in Paris, as his system consumed less than half the gas of the Belgian system and offered more power.

Although the first four-stroke internal combustion engine was patented in 1861 by the Frenchman Alphonse Beau de Rochas, it would be Otto himself who perfected it in 1876, in collaboration with Wilhelm Maybach and Gottlieb Daimler. His system is the system that standardized the compression of air during combustion.

Three years later, another German, Karl Benz, would patent a two-stroke engine based on Beau de Rochas’ designs. He would later develop a four-stroke engine, which he would patent in 1885 and mate to a light three-wheeled carriage the following year, creating the first automobile in history.

Benz did not trust the commercialization of his invention, but his wife, Bertha Benz, drove the car from Mannheim to Pforzheim (106 km) in 1888, to show how useful it could be to the public. Two years later, Benz joined Friedrich von Fischer and Julius Ganss, who would take care of the administration and sales of his new company, respectively, leaving him free time to focus on the technical development of the car. The first four-wheel Benz model, the Benz Victoria, arrived in 1893 and the Velo, the foundation of road transport, would be developed shortly afterwards.

The 20th century begins with infinite potential: in 1900, Rudolf Diesel presents the operation of his own engine at the Paris exhibition, which used peanut oil. That same year, Maybach introduced the Daimler-Mercedes engine. Production of the Ford Model T begins in 1908.

Although the engine is the essential element of any car, advances were made in all areas: suspension, transmission, tires, comfort, electricity… At the beginning of the 20th century, oil seemed inexhaustible and attempts to create electric cars had failed. – the Flocken Electrowagen was built in 1888. The first batteries, only for lighting, were used in 1905. 130 years later, it will be the only one that powers cars in Europe.

Source: La Verdad

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