The origins of engines can be quite elusive but equally interesting. This presents a cohesive understanding of the diversity and application of engines in their developed time period and in ours today.
The combustion engine is likely the most significant engineering invention of all time, on par with creations such as the wheel and the iPhone. However, the breadth of application and inception of this automation marvel are often kept unnoticed. Tracing the roots of the said engine might not only provide us with a more well-rounded outlook on how everything operates but might ignite some buried interest for this sensation. The creation of the engine itself is molded by the fuel, primarily switching between coal and fossil fuels, deriving primarily from their high hydrocarbon compounds. A key understanding of this will enable us to be more aware and efficient going forward.
The creation began in 1506 when none other than Leonardo da Vinci described a compression-less engine. While no tangible proof traces him back to the creation of the engine, it inspired fellow engineer Christiaan Huygens in 1673 to formulate this idea of using mechanical devices to generate this power. Through these two, an idea worthy of a revolution was put in place with the schematics to be figured out in due time. This happened in 1794 when Robert Street created the first engine using this same prescribed system but incurring the technology of the time to bring life to the founder’s ideas. This engine continues to be used around the world and culminated in Italy, where Italian engineers developed the keystone engine: the IC engine. The key principle that this operated upon was a thermodynamic cycle, redistributing heat and energy as necessary to potentially maximize output. The cycle, accurately named, “The Leonardo Cycle” used archaic principles developed by Da Vinci himself.
However, the first genuine combustion engine that is so famous for shaping the industrial process and by virtue, the world, was created in 1860, when Etienne Lenoir produced a gas-fired internal combustion engine.
This efficient creation used modern tools to epitomize the production with devices that are still used today such as cylinders, pistons, connecting-rods, and flywheels in which the gas essentially took the place of the steam. This one engine changed the course of the world economy by completely shifting the production capability of various nations. Its inception was not only critical to science but also history.
This progression of engineering continued on until 1862, where Nikolaus Otto designed an indirect-acting free-piston compression-less engine whose greater efficiency won the support of Langen and then most of the market, which at that time, was mostly for small stationary engines fueled by lighting gas. This engine led to proprietary technology being implemented to apply in-cylinder compression, a system still used for fuel combustion today. More than 250 years later, this same system was implemented by Karl Benz who built his own four-stroke engine that was used in his automobiles, which became the first automobiles in production. Also inventing the boxer engine, his contributions led engineers of the modern era to search the bound of currently developed systems and leverage modern technology in their favor.
Through this historical development, the modern engine has climaxed into two major categories: straight IC engines and V engines. These straight IC engines showcase its historically developed features, continuing to be heat engines in which the burning of a fuel occurs in a confined space called a combustion chamber. As these engines continue to develop, their use in the production industry is unmatched. Nonetheless, the main engine featured in automobiles today is the V engine, captivating for the V-like shape of the engine. This is a common configuration for an internal combustion engine where the pistons are aligned so that they appear to be in a V when viewed along the line of the crankshaft. the V configuration reduces the overall engine length and weight compared to an equivalent straight engine. Through both engines, not only automobiles, but everything around us is able to function.
In retrospect, the creation of this engineering wonders might be unsurprising and boorish to some, but the philosophy adopted by those closely influenced by it is what pushed science to where it is today. Engines don't just do the world’s work, they also showcase the progressive attitude of engineers through the decades and the omnipresent conflict of not staying stagnant. These engines are not just tools but have become a part of the very cultures they were introduced in, both through industry and through the medium of vehicles. The influence of engines to this day is unprecedented and it is shocking to trace back their roots to something as simple as a Da Vinci drawing on a piece of paper.
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