Born on this day, Gottlieb Daimler, who with the help of Maybach designed and built the first practical four-stroke internal combustion engine
Monday 17th March 1834 Born on this day, Gottlieb Daimler, who with the help of Maybach designed and built the first practical four-stroke internal combustion engine. They set up business in Cannstatt, Germany as consultant and design engineers in 1882 and in the following year they produced the first ‘high speed’ (800 rpm) petrol engine…
Born on this day, Nikolaus Otto, German engineer who developed the four-stroke internal-combustion engine, which offered the first practical alternative to the steam engine as a power source
Sunday 10th June 1832 Born on this day, Nikolaus Otto, German engineer who developed the four-stroke internal-combustion engine, which offered the first practical alternative to the steam engine as a power source. Otto built his first gasoline-powered engine in 1861. Three years later he formed a partnership with the German industrialist Eugen Langen, and together…
Siegfried Samuel Marcus
Sunday 18th September 1831 Born on this day, Siegfried Samuel Marcus, German-Austrian inventor and automobile pioneer. About 1870 he put an internal combustion engine on a simple handcart. This appliance was designed for liquid combustibles and made him the first to propel a vehicle by means of gasoline. Today, this car is well known as…
Born on this day, Clement Studebaker, founder of wagon and auto manufacturer that bears his name
Saturday 12th March 1831 Born on this day, Clement Studebaker, founder of wagon and auto manufacturer that bears his name. Post WWII competition drove Studebaker to its limits, and the company was absorbed by the Packard Corporation in 1954.
George B. Brayton
Sunday 3rd October 1830 Born on this day, George B. Brayton received a U.S. patent for a gas-powered engine (No. 125,166). Its principle of continuous ignition later became the basis for the turbine engine. A pressurized air-fuel mixture from a reservoir was ignited upon entering a water-cooled cylinder. The Brayton engine was tried in watercraft,…
Born on this day, Jean Joseph Étienne Lenoir, who developed the first internal combustion engine, a single-cylinder two-stroke engine which burnt a mixture of coal gas and air ignited by a “jumping spark” ignition system by Ruhmkorff coil and which he patented in 1860
Saturday 12th January 1822 Born on this day, Jean Joseph Étienne Lenoir, who developed the first internal combustion engine, a single-cylinder two-stroke engine which burnt a mixture of coal gas and air ignited by a “jumping spark” ignition system by Ruhmkorff coil and which he patented in 1860. The engine differed from more modern two-stroke…
Father Eugenio Barsanti
Friday 12th October 1821 Born on this day, Father Eugenio Barsanti, also named Nicolò, Italian inventor of the Internal combustion engine.
Moses Gerrish Farmer
Wednesday 9th February 1820 Born on this day, Moses Gerrish Farmer, an American electrician whose inventions made pioneer electric automobiles feasible. In 1847, Farmer constructed and exhibited in public what he called “an electro-magnetic locomotive, and with forty-eight pint cells of Grove nitric acid batteries, the locomotive drew a little car carrying two passengers on…
Born on this day, Charles Goodyear, inventor of vulcanized rubber
Monday 29th December 1800 Born on this day, Charles Goodyear, inventor of vulcanized rubber. The industrial use of rubber is possible only because of vulcanization. Goodyear’s process made millions of dollars, but not for him. Widespread infringements on his patents, together with poor luck in business, left him deep in debt at his death in…
Goldsworthy Gurney
Thursday 14th February 1793 Born on this day, Goldsworthy Gurney. Amongst many accomplishments, the Cornishman developed the oxy-hydrogen blowpipe, and later applied its principles to a novel form of illumination, the Bude light. He also developed a series of early steam-powered road vehicles; and laid claim, still discussed and disputed today, to the blastpipe, a…
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This Day In Automotive History
