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Internal Combustion Engines 110

An engine is something that produces some effect from a given input.
An internal combustion engine or piston internal combustion engine is any engine that operates by burning its fuel inside the engine.

The purpose of a gasoline car engine is to convert gasoline into motion so that your car can move. Currently the easiest way to create motion from gasoline is to burn the gasoline inside an engine. Therefore, a car engine is an internal combustion engine -- combustion takes place internally.

There is such a thing as an external combustion engine. A steam engine in old-fashioned trains and steam boats is the best example of an external combustion engine. The fuel (coal, wood, oil, whatever) in a steam engine burns outside the engine to create steam, and the steam creates motion inside the engine.
Almost all cars today use a reciprocating internal combustion engine because this engine is:
- Relatively efficient (compared to an external combustion engine)
- Relatively inexpensive (compared to a gas turbine)
- Relatively easy to refuel (compared to an electric car)
A reciprocating engine, also often known as a piston engine, is an engine that utilizes one or more pistons in order to convert pressure into a rotating motion.
The most common form of reciprocating engines use the burning of gasoline or diesel fuel to provide pressure. There may be one or more pistons. Each piston is located inside a cylinder, into which a fuel and air mixture is introduced, and then ignited. The now hot gases expand, pushing the piston away. The linear movement of the piston is converted to a circular movement via a connecting rod and a crankshaft. These engines are known collectively as internal-combustion engines, although internal-combustion engines do not necessarily contain pistons.
A hybrid car uses more than one power source, almost always an internal-combustion engine and an electric motor. In the hybrid design the engine is the final source of the energy used to power the car. All-electric cars use batteries charged by an external source, leading to problems with range. This common complaint is avoided with hybrid cars.
The first successful hybrid electric car was engineered by Ferdinand Porsche in 1928.
However, hybrid technology has been in use on railroads ever since the 1930s
Automotive hybrid technology became commercially successful in the 1990s when the Honda Insight and Toyota Prius became available.

A fuel cell is an electrochemical device similar to a battery, but differing from the latter in that it is designed for continuous replenishment of the reactants consumed; i.e. it produces electricity from an external fuel supply as opposed to the limited internal energy storage capacity of a battery.
Fuel cells are also attractive in some applications for their high efficiency and low pollution. (The only byproduct of a hydrogen fuel cell is water vapor).
The GM Hy-wire, the world’s first drivable vehicle to combine fuel-cell propulsion with by-wire technology, incorporates the features first envisioned in the AUTOnomy concept vehicle at the 2002 North American International Auto Show in Detroit and the Geneva Motor Show.

Internal Combustion Engine History

Francois Issac de Rivaz built the first internal combustion engine in 1807.
The first patent for an internal combustion engine was awarded by the U.S. Patent Office in 1826 to Samuel Morey.
In 1858, Jean Lenoir invented the first practical internal combustion engine. It relied upon coal gas that was sucked into the cylinder at the beginning of each stroke and then ignited to push the piston to the other end of the cylinder. This process was then repeated at the other end of the cylinder making the engine double-acting.
In 1867, Nikolaus Otto built the first four-stroke internal combustion engine. This engine proved more efficient than Lenoir's design and was successfully marketed for industrial purposes. The design was later improved by Gottlieb Daimler who focused on making the technology practical for use in automobiles most notably by incorporating a gasoline carburettor.