History of german combustion engine construction from 1860 to 1918
By DR.-ING. DR.-ING. E. H. FRIEDRICH SASS
PROFESSOR AN DER TECHNISCHEN UNIVERSITAT BERLIN
Inhaltsverzeichnis
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From the beginnings to Lenoir (1673-1860)
Christian Huygens p. 2
Jean de Hautefeuille p. 3
Denis Papin p. 3
John Barber p. 4
Robert Street p. 4
Philippe Lebon p. 5
Isaac de Rivaz p. 5
William Cecil p. 5
Samuel Brown p. 6
Wellman L. Wright p. 6
William Barnett p. 7
Alfred Drake p. 8
Barsanti and Matteucci p. 8
Degrand p. 10
Lenoir and his engine p. 11
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I. From the beginnings to Lenoir (1673-1860)
The beginning of the history of the internal combustion engine has not been wrongly associated with the name Christian Huygens (1629-1695). The ingenious idea of the powder engine, which the great mathematician and physicist communicated to his brother in a letter in 16735, can indeed be seen as a precursor to the invention of the atmospheric gas engine, which Otto and Langen built 200 years later in Deutz. Huygens was living in Paris at the time, where he was busy pumping water from the Seine into the gardens of the newly built Palace of Versailles for the water features of Louis XIV. Figure I shows how HUYGENS thought of the solution to the problem. In the cylinders A-B, which are open at the top, The lower opening of which could be closed by the powder pan C, the piston D was suspended from a rope D-K that ran over the roller H; the payload G hung from the free end of the rope. If gunpowder was poured into the pan C and ignited by a fuse, the gas pressure had to throw the piston D at the bottom of the cylinder upwards. In its highest position, the piston opened the openings E and the powder gases flowed out through the leather tubes E-F, which acted as valves. A vacuum was created in the cylinder, so that the external air pressure compressed the leather tubes and moved the piston downwards, lifting the payload G. The weight of the piston increased the effective power. The device was implemented; Huygens demonstrated it to the French Academy of Sciences and to the Minister Colbert in 1673.
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The Orléans-born AbM Jean de Hautefeuille (1647-1724) was working on the same problem at the same time as HUYGENS. His device had no piston; it consisted only of a box which, standing several meters above the level of the water to be raised, had four valves in its upper wall that opened outwards. A pipe reached from the bottom of the box to below the water level of the river6 • By burning gunpowder, a vacuum was to be created in the box, just as in HUYGENS's gunpowder machine, through which the water was sucked in. DE HAUTEFEUILLE published this idea in 1678 in his work "Pendule perpetuel avec la maniere d'elever l'eau par le moyen de la poudre a canon", which was printed in Paris. A little later, in 1682, he attempted to use the excess pressure of the powder gases directly to move a column of water, an idea that was to be encountered again 200 years later in the form of the Humphrey pump. In Paris, Denis Papin (1647-1710), who had studied medicine and practiced as a doctor, had contacted HUYGENS; he took part in HUYGENS' experiments. In 1688, PAPIN became professor of mathematics in Marburg, where he interested the Landgrave of Hesse in the idea of the powder machine. The Landgrave commissioned him to build such a machine, and PAPIN made a model, which is shown schematically in Figure 2.
| Figure 2
Diagram of the powder machine by DENIS PAPIN (1688) a cylinder; b piston with valve opening upwards c; d supporting frame of the piston; e rope; f ignition pan PAPIN'S powder machine is based on the same principle as HUYGENS's. It differs from it only in minor details. PAPIN was HUYGENS' assistant in his younger years |
A ring-shaped piston b can move in a brass cylinder a with a diameter of 13 cm and a length of 40 cm. This forms the seat for the valve c that opens upwards. The piston is suspended by a frame d from a rope e that runs over rollers, the free end of which carries the payload. In the middle of the cylinder base is the movable ignition pan j, which is pressed from below by a weighted lever against the opening in the base. If the gunpowder placed in the pan is ignited when the piston is at the bottom, the piston is thrown upwards and the gases escape into the open air by lifting the valve. A vacuum is created in the cylinder; the external air pressure closes the valve and pushes the piston downwards, lifting the payload hanging on the rope. The chemical energy of the powder gases is converted into mechanical energy.