From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir (January 12, 1822 - August 4, 1900) was a French-Belgian engineer.

Born in Mussy-la-Ville, Belgium, by the early 1850s he had emigrated to France, taking up residence in Paris, where he developed an interest in electroplating. His interest in the subject led him to make electrical inventions including an improved telegraph.

By 1859, Lenoir's experimentation with electricity led him to develop 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, and which he patented in 1860. The engine differed from more modern two-stroke engines in that the charge was not compressed before ignition. A company was formed to develop the engine, and a three-wheeled carriage was constructed powered by it. Although it ran reasonably well, the engine was fuel inefficient and extremely noisy and tended to overheat and, if insufficient cooling water was not applied, tended to seize up.

In 1863 Lenoir demonstrated a second three-wheeled carriage, powered by a 1.5 hp "liquid hydrocarbon" (petroleum) engine with a primitive carburettor which successfully covered the 18 kilometres from Paris to Joinville-le-Pont and back.

Most applications of the Lenoir engine were as a stationary power plant powering printing presses, water pumps and machine tools. Other engineers, especially Nikolaus Otto, began making improvements in internal combustion technology which soon rendered the Lenoir design obsolete. Less than 500 Lenoir engines of between 6 and 20 hp were built.

• History of the Motor Vehicle at newreg.co.uk