The Combustion Of Automobiles In The 19th Century

From the humble steam engine to the more complex and sophisticated internal combustion of gasoline, engines have become a necessity to daily lives, more specifically automobiles. Since the 19th century, automobiles were able to revolutionize the world in a variety of ways. Because of the unreasonable price and low popularity, automobiles were not as prominent as they are today (Purdy 1). The history of the automobile depicts the effort used in the past centuries in order to delineate the formation and progression of the automobile in an instructional way. The first transformation of energy into mechanical work dates as far back as the first century (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica 1). “The earliest steam engines were the scientific novelties of Hero of Alexandria in the 1st century C.E” (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica 1). Although the idea of the steam engine was introduced, there was very little or no serviceable use for it (The …show more content…
“The equipment was noisy, smoky, destructive of roadways, and admittedly dangerous” (Purdy 1). The age of steam was slowly declining, but it was able to pave the road for the use of internal combustion (Purdy 1). Christian Huygens, a Dutch physicist, was the first person to study and examine the internal combustion engine (Zueco 102). Similar to the steam engine, there were very few uses for internal combustion. Not until 1859, the French engineer, J.J Etienne Lenoir was able to build an effective “double acting, spark-ignition engine that could be operated continuously” (102). Another discovery was made in 1862, when a French scientist named Alphonse Beau de Rochas was able to patent a four stroke engine (102). Based on this discovery, Nikolaus A. Otto created the “Otto cycle”, which was a built four stroke engine (102). These engines and principles were the basis on which the automobile was able to use internal combustion (Purdy