1st Commercial Success in Gas Engines

By Dr. Paul Harvey
Published on April 23, 2024
article image
courtesy of Dr. Paul Harvey
The Lenoir gas engine at the Technisches Museum Wien (Vienna Museum of Science and Technology).

The gas engine’s humble beginnings date back to 12th-century China when the cannon was invented. Already having produced gunpowder, a weapon was not a surprising use of their new explosive. The cannon worked well and was built in many sizes and configurations. But all had two things in common: a barrel and a projectile.

Many years went by but eventually thought was given to peaceful and useful adaptations. The barrel could become a cylinder and the cannonball a piston. So the inventors went to work to construct some mechanism to make a piston go back and forth and connect to make a rotary motion. Centuries passed before this happened.


1712
Thomas Newcomen, England, developed the first commercially successful engine to use the piston and cylinder (above). It produced a reciprocating motion that was widely adapted to pump water from mines. It used wood or coal to fuel its boiler.

1763
James Watt invented the connecting rod and crankshaft to provide rotary motion. The modern steam engine was the result.

1800s
During the Industrial Revolution, a prolific amount of invention took place. The early- and mid-1800s saw a focus on the internal combustion engine. Why burn the fuel externally to make steam when it could be burned directly in the cylinder to make power? There were many ideas and prototypes, but they all had problems and none reached commercial success.

1860
Belgian-French engineer, Étienne Lenoir, succeeded in building the first commercially successful gas engine.

1864
Over 130 gas engines were working in Paris. Total production was around 500 engines. A German license had been issued. Lenoir’s destiny was fulfilled.

1900
Lenoir passed away in Paris on August 4.


Let’s jump ahead to the 1700s, 500 years from the innovation of the cannon. An era of enlightenment had awakened with the Industrial Revolution dating about 1760 to 1840. So much invention had already occurred in the early 1700s. Finally, the cannon barrel and ball were put to productive use.

Jean Joseph Étienne Lenoir was born on Jan. 12, 1822, in the village of Mussy-la-Ville, then a part of Luxembourg. He was the third child of eight whose father was Jean-Louis Lenoir, a merchant, and mother was Margot Megdelaine, a housewife. He left the tiny village of 800 souls at an early age – destined to become an inventor – and worked as a farm hand on his journey to Paris. There, he worked as a waiter and became interested in electricity. He became an accomplished engineer through a great deal of self-study. Turning his focus to the gas engine, he had a running prototype built in 1858 and was granted a patent for it in 1860. It was a commercial success, and although fuel inefficient, many were sold throughout France and put to useful work.

At this time, the Otto cycle of compressing the charge was not invented yet; it had to wait another 20 years. So it was a non-compressing 2-cycle engine. But, he made it double-acting, so it fired on both sides of the piston. Cooling was an issue, so plenty of water had to be flowed through the cylinder. Double slide valves (one on each side of the cylinder) were used for the intake and exhaust functions. Pipe G is the gas intake and Pipe E is the air, mixed and introduced into the cylinder by the slide valve shown. A similar slide valve for the exhaust function is on the other side of the cylinder. It worked well.

But what is shown along the engine base? It’s a coil and batteries. In 1858? Lenoir invented the spark plug, calling it “jumping sparks.” He used the newly invented Ruhmkorff coil to do this.

Invented by Heinrich Ruhmkorff, the coil is known to all engine folks as a buzz coil. Henry Ford used them for his Model T ignition. Sadly, Lenoir’s use of the spark plug was abandoned in favor of open flame and hot tube for many years. Lenoir was truly a genius and built a wonderful machine.

The Lenoir engine (above) in Deutz Technikum in Cologne, Germany, is operated for the museum’s many visitors. Note the two slide valves, operated by eccentrics, located on either side of the cylinder, and the spark plugs for ignition. Amazingly, these engines were built to reach 20hp.

But Lenoir was not satisfied with the stationary engine so he built an automobile. His car, the Hippomobile (below), was on the road in 1863. He installed a 1.5hp version of his engine into this tricycle frame and used liquid fuel by a primitive patented carburetor. It covered the seven-mile course from Paris to Joinville-le-Pont and back in 90 minutes at the breakneck speed of 3km/hr. Slow, yes, but it was successful! A new era had begun.

He still was not satisfied so he turned to motorboats. Installing an improved version of his engine in a 12-meter-long boat for a Mr. Dalloz, it was used on the Siene River for the next two years.

The two images of Lenoir’s U.S. patent (at right) illustrate how the engine operated. The engine’s design is graceful and pleasing, and was copied for future generations of engines. It was a job well done.

Lenoir spent the rest of his life in peaceful prosperity in his apartment in Paris. He often went fly-fishing in the nearby Seine, but remained active and followed the development of the combustion engine.


Dr. Paul Harvey is the founder of Coolspring Power Museum and a regular contributor to Gas Engine Magazine. Email him at engdoc8@gmail.com

Coolspring Power Museum is located in Coolspring, Pennsylvania, and was founded in 1985. The museum collection includes hundreds of stationary engines housed in more than 35 buildings and outdoor displays. Their mission is to collect, preserve, and interpret historically significant and mechanically interesting early stationary internal combustion engines for the education and enjoyment of everyone. To learn more, visit the Coolspring Power Museum website.

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