Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
8.9
(a) Charles A. Parsons (1854-1931) and (b) his first
1-MW steam turbine. From Smil (2005b).
ardous to use. Daimler and Maybach built a prototype of
a high-revolution (@600 rpm) gasoline-fueled engine
with a surface carburetor and hot-tube ignition in 1883.
Two years later they fastened this version onto a bicycle,
creating the prototype of the motorcycle, and in 1886
they mounted a larger (0.462 L, 820 W), water-cooled
version on a coach chassis.
Working independently, Karl Benz was granted a
patent for a three-wheeled vehicle powered by a four-
stroke, single-cylinder gasoline engine in January 1886
(fig. 8.10). This motorized carriage was driven publicly
for the first time on July 3, 1886, along Mannheim's
Friedrichsring. The light vehicle—total weight was just
263 kg, including the 96-kg single-cylinder, four-stroke
engine—had a less powerful (0.954 L, 500 W) and
slower-running (250 rpm) engine than did Daimler
and Maybach's carriage, and it could go no faster than
about 14.5 km/h. The car had to be started by turning
a heavy horizontal flywheel behind the driver's seat, but
water cooling, electric coil ignition (highly unreliable),
spark plugs (two lengths of insulated platinum wire pro-
truding into the combustion chamber), and differential
gears were key components of Benz's design that are still
standard features in modern vehicles.
These concurrent innovations introduced the key
ingredients of the modern car engine and launched the
still continuing expansion of the automobile industry.
After a relatively slow period of advances during the
1890s, the new century brought a flood of innovations
ranging from electrical starters to antilock brakes. Many
impressive gains in efficiency and reliability followed,
but the development of automotive Otto cycle engines
