Ignition System
Although electronics are almost universally used to ignite the gases of an internal combustion engine today, these engines were first developed using much different ignition methods. The earliest internal combustion engines burned a gas called illuminating or coal gas that was widely used in city street lights. The use of gasoline as a fuel came much later in internal combustion engine development.
These early internal combustion engines used a burning flame to ignite the coal gas fuel. A flame was kept burning in a compartment next to the cylinder where the coal gas was induced. At precisely the right moment, a sliding valve would open and the flame would ignite the gas within the cylinder. The flame would be blown out, and, after combustion, another valve would have to be slid open to expose still another flame to re-ignite the internal flame used to ignite the gases.
Another crude ignition method was to insert a tube into the cylinder, the outer end of which was closed and kept red-hot by an external flame. At the moment of ignition, a valve would open and the coal gas would enter this cylinder and be exposed to the red-hot tube, igniting the gas and driving the piston down its cylinder. This red-hot tube system was refined by Gottlieb Daimler, and his modification of the system aided him in developing a lightweight, high-speed internal combustion engine.
Electricity was first used in automotive ignition systems in the early 1800s, long before inventors looked to electricity to ignite the gases that powered their internal combustion engines. Based on his discovery of electro-magnetic induction, French inventor Hippolyte Pixii presented the world with its first practical magneto-electric generator in 1831. Pixii's hand-cranked machine led the world's electric revolution. French physicists Antoine Masson and Louis Bréguet created the first induction coil in 1841--the next crucial step in the development of automotive ignition systems. The Masson and Bréguet coil produced a high-tension electrical charge that could "jump" a gap.
This coil was perfected in 1851 by German physicist Heinrich Ruhmkorff. The Ruhmkorff coil was adapted to ignition systems by several automotive pioneers including Herr Giesenberg (Germany, 1880), F. Forest (France, 1883), and Nikolaus August Otto (Germany,1884). An ignition system that used the ignition coil coupled with a storage battery for electrical power was first used by French inventor Jean-Joseph-Etienne Lenoir in 1883. Lenoir is also credited with the invention of the internal combustion engine, and, in 1885, he invented a device quite similar to the modern spark plug.
German inventors Robert Bosch and Gottlieb Honold joined forces in the Bosch company to develop the high-tension, magneto-spark plug system that was used for decades as the standard for automotive ignition systems. In the early 20th century, American inventor Charles Kettering made improvements to automotive ignition systems and storage batteries; these included his invention of an electric starting motor, which eliminated the need to use a crank to start an automobile engine. These improvements led to the gradual decline in the use of magneto ignition systems for automobiles, although magneto systems are still used in aircraft with internal combustion, piston engines.
The diesel engine developed by Rudolf Diesel does not use an electrical ignition system. In the diesel system, air drawn into the cylinder is greatly compressed--up to a ratio of 25 to 1. This compression heats the air to a temperature of up to 1,000°F (538°C). Because this super-heated air ignites fuel as it is injected into the cylinder of the diesel engine, an electrical ignition system is not necessary.
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