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Modern Automotive Engine Comparison

Zackee Dosky

Spear

4B

March 18, 2017

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Did you know that modern automobiles can have one of three types of engines? Modern

automotive engines can be put into 3 different groups, gas engines, hybrid engines, and electric

motors. Gas engines are the most common and have been around for the longest. Then the

electric motor was built in 1839. Finally the hybrid engine was built in 1899. All of these are

now used standard on modern vehicles. The most used type of engine is the gas engine which is

also known as the internal combustion engine. Then it is the hybrid engine which uses both gas

and electricity. The least used is the electric motor which is very little compared to the other two.

All of these are effective in their own way and are made for different purposes.

In modern day, people are actually starting to shift into using electric and hybrid cars

more. This is because in 2008 when Barrack Obama was elected president he wanted to shift

over to driving electric cars. He stated that he wanted to get one million electric cars on the road

by 2015. This inevitably failed because of the lack of important requirements to reach that goal.

The demand for electric cars is actually not very high so car companies dont make them as

much as they do their gas cars or advertise them as much. Also, it is not so easy to find places to

charge up the batteries to these vehicles and if you do find one its expensive to recharge. This is

why there are still so many people who drive gas and hybrid cars rather than electric.

The history of these engines is actually very interesting as the internal combustion engine

was built before the steam engine however the steam engine was used for vehicles instead. This

was because the mechanical difficulties were too much for these scientists. Due to this these

people decided to experiment with the steam engine. The first actual steam engine was built in

1744 by James Watt in Soho Works in Birmingham, England. The steam engine is powered by

heat from evaporated water by combusting coal or wood. During this time there was a pause on

the production of the internal combustion engine. This continued until it was decided that the
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steam engine could not be advanced anymore. It wasnt until Robert Street patented his own

internal combustion engine in 1794 and Lenon in 1801 that attention finally moved back to the

internal combustion engine. In 1823 Samuel Brown constructed a boat powered by an internal

combustion engine. W. L. Wright in 1835 and Barnett in 1838 made several important

improvements, (Rustyiron.com). It was not until 1860 that the gas engine was finally

constructed after all of the difficulties were gone. Lenoir then brought the gas engine out of the

experimental stage into public use, and the Reading Iron Works Co. of the U.S. built 100 of

them, and several of them are in use at the present time (Rustyiron.com).

How does the internal combustion engine work? Its a simple process but the same cant

be said for building it as well. For example, the internal combustion engine is based on a four

stroke principle. A process similar to the four stroke principle is loading and firing a cannon,

(Oldengine.org). To fire a cannon, the operator must pack the cannon with gun powder and

wadding material. Then, the ball is dropped in. Next, the cannon must be ignited to fire. Finally,

it needs to be cleaned after. This is a good representation for the process of the internal

combustion engine. The internal combustion engine must first draw its piston back in its cylinder

to create a vacuum. This opens the intake valve and lets in gas. The piston pushes back down and

the volume decreases closing the intake valve. Next, the piston starts to move forward and

compresses the gas and air that is in the carburetor. Then, there must be combustion so either a

battery or some other power source is used to cause a jump from the spark plug. The spark plug

is screwed in the carburetor so it directly ignites the gas and air. This jump pushes the piston

backward. Finally, the crankshaft spins 180 degrees to move the piston forward again. The rocker

arm and push rod open the exhaust valve to let out the excess fumes. The process repeats itself

over and over again to generate its power.

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The history of the electric motor is a lot longer than you would expect. The electric motor

dates all the way back to 1800. After the battery was invented in 1800 by Allessandro Volta, the

generation of the magnetic field from electric currents by Hans Christian Oersted in 1820, and

the invention of the electro magnet by William Sturgeon in 1825 this laid out the foundation for

what would come to be as the electric motor. At the time, it was being decided whether the motor

should be reciprocating or rotating. Since many inventors were working parallel in the making of

this engine new phenomena were being discovered almost on a daily. Often the inventors did not

know a thing about each other so they would discover similar solutions to each other. The first

rotating device driven by electromagnetism was built by the Englishman Peter Barlow in 1822,

(Doppelbauer). Many other inventors also achieved this goal; however, their devices were

relatively weak. In May of 1834, Moritz Jacobi, a Prussian, invented the first fully functional

electric motor that pushed a surprising amount of mechanical power. Jacobis motor held the

world record for four years until September of 1838 by himself. Jacobi built a new motor that

was powerful enough to drive a boat with passengers across a river. It was not until 1839 that

other inventors around the world built similar and later on with better performance. By 1833,

German inventor, Heinrich Friedrich Emil Lenz, published an article on the Law of reciprocity of

the electro magnet and the electromagnetic phenomena. In 1838, Heinrich Friedrich Emil Lenz

created a detailed description of his experiments with a pixii generator that he used as a motor. In

1835, two Dutchmen, Sibrandus Strasingh and Christopher Becker, built an electric motor to

power a small model car. This was the first time that the electric motor was put to use. In

February 1837, Thomas Davenport, an American inventor, was given the first patent for an

electric motor. However, even though these were good leads none of these early developments

led to the modern electric motors.

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The DC motor is one of the electric motors used today. Surprisingly, it was actually

invented from the development of power generators (dynamometers). Its foundations were laid

by William Ritchie and Hippolyte Pixii in 1832 alongside the invention of the commutator.

Werner Siemens also laid out the foundations with the double-T anchor in 1872. Siemens chief

engineer, Friedrich Hefner-Alteneck, assisted him with the drum armature.

The Three-Phase Electric Power System is the standard for modern electrical power

transmission and advanced electric motors. There is no single person who can be named for the

invention of the Three-Phase Electric Power System. Although, there are several inventors who

were very involved in its development. The inventors names were Bradley, Dolivo-Dobrowlsky,

Ferraris, Haselwander, Tesla and wenstrom.

The synchronous motor is what is used mainly for highly dynamic operations such as

robots or electric cars. It was first developed in 1887 by Friedrich August Haselwander. The

Three-Phase Cage Induction Motor is also used in electric cars. It was invented by Michael

Dolivo-Dobrowlsky in 1889 and was highly successful. It is the most frequently used machine

with over 1 kW of power.

The basic idea of how the electric motor works is simply to put electricity into one end

and an axle on the other end will rotate generating the power to drive a machine. The science

behind how this works is more complicated than that. In short, a wire is put into a loop and put

between the poles of a powerful horseshoe magnet. Then the two ends of the wire are connected

to the ends of a battery and the wire will jump. This is because when an electric current runs

through a wire it creates a magnetic field around it. This magnetic field will interact with the

magnetic field from in the current. Just like with any other magnets they will either attract or

repel each other and this is what creates the jump. This is also how magnetism and electricity are
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related to create movement. This is only a basic setup. The more realistic setup is more

complicated to fix the problems with the basic setup. The realistic way that an electric motor

would work is to have this similar setup however to keep the wire from moving only half a turn a

commutator is added into place to switch the current every time the wire completes half a turn so

that it can finish its turn. Brushes are also used to connect the battery to the commutator.

Obviously, this is too weak to power a vehicle so to increase its torque it would either need to

have a stronger magnet, an increased electric current, or make the coil so that it has more thin

wires rather than one thick wire. Even though the motor actually has many different parts it is put

into a more basic form. That being that the magnet or magnets around the motor case remain

static so they are called the stator and the coil which is mounted onto an axle spinning at high

speeds is called the rotor.

Those were just basic DC motors. An AC motor works in a slightly different way. They

pass an alternating current through opposing pairs of magnets to create a rotating magnetic field

which creates a magnetic field in the motors rotor and causes it to spin around.

The history of the hybrid engine is a very unusual one considering that it had to be made

from two different engine types. Sometime between 1665 and 1680, Flemish Jesuit priest and

astronomer Ferdinand Verbeist Created plans for a miniature four-wheel unmanned steam car for

the Chinese Emperor Khang Hsi. Frenchman Nicholas Cugnot built a steam-powered motor

carriage capable of six miles per hour in 1769. In 1825, British Inventor Goldsworthy Gurney

built a steam car that successfully completed an 85 mile round-trip journey in ten hours. In 1839,

Robert Anderson of Aberdeen, Scotland built the first electric vehicle. In 1888, Immisch and his

associates built a taxi-cab powered by a one horsepower motor and a 24-cell battery for the

sultan of the Ottoman Empire. Between 1-890 and 1910, there was a period of significant
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improvements in battery technology including the modern lead-acid battery invented by H.

Tudor and the nickel-iron battery invented by Thomas Edison and Junger. Also in 1897, the Pope

Manufacturing Company of Hartford, Connecticut built around 500 electric cars over a two year

period.

In 1898, Austrian Dr. Ferdinand Porsche built his first car, the Lohner Electric Chaise,

which was the first front-wheel drive. Porsches second vehicle was actually a hybrid, which

used an internal combustion engine to spin a generator that gave the power to the electric motors

in the wheel hubs. On only its batteries the car could drive 40 miles. In 1900, Belgian carmaker,

Pieper, introduced a vehicle with a 3-1/2 horsepower engine that was mated to an electric motor

under the seat. If the car was cruising it would recharge its batteries and the engine would work

alone; however, if it was climbing a hill the electric motor would give it a boost. Piepers patents

were used by a Belgian firm to build commercial vehicles from 1906 to 1912. In 1904, Henry

Ford overcame the challenges of the gas engine and began the assembly line. Within a few years

the Electric Vehicle Company failed. Although in 1905, an American engineer, H. Piper, filed a

patent on a petrol-electric hybrid automobile. The idea was to use an electric motor to assist the

gas engine which would enable it to achieve 25 mph. In 1916, two electric vehicle makers

offered hybrid vehicles, Baker of Cleveland and Woods of Chicago, which could achieve 35 mph

and 48 mpg. However, they were expensive and less powerful. In 1918, a hybrid truck was built

with a four-cylinder gas engine to power a generator which eliminated the need for batteries or a

transmission. From 1968 to 1971, three scientists from TRW, automaker, created the hybrid

power train. It was known as the electromechanical transmission. Its designs are used in todays

hybrids.
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In its most basic form the hybrid engine works as a gas engine and an electric motor

however it uses the electric motor more. The hybrid engine uses its electric motor to provide

power to the wheels with batteries to supply the motor. It also has a gasoline engine that powers

a generator. The engine is very small and runs at only one speed for maximum efficiency. The

engines only purpose is to provide the extra power at cruising speeds.

In conclusion, each engine type serves their purpose and have their advantages and

disadvantages. An electric motor is the easiest to maintain. It is the most efficient and have a

wide range of operating speeds so it needs little to no gears. They have regenerative braking and

can provide full torque from stationary. Electric motors can come in all sizes so they are more

compact. The disadvantages of an electric motor are they are not resistant to extreme temperature

but can handle normal temperature. It also uses batteries which dont last for very long compared

to gas. The advantages of an internal combustion engine are that it is faster to refuel and lasts

longer than batteries. There are also many places to fill up its tank rather than an electric motor.

The disadvantages is that its harder to maintain and are louder than electric motors. The hybrid

engine has the benefits of both however they are heavy and slightly easier to maintain than a gas

engine. the demand for each of these types of vehicles are changing and automotive companies

are starting to move over to using electric motors rather than gas engines. There may be a time

when the electric motor and hybrid engine are the most dominant.
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Works Cited

Skinner, Rob. "History of the Gas Engine." History of the Gas Engine. Rustyiron.com, 2010. Web. 20

Feb. 2017002

Horning, Zain. "How a Gas Engine Works." How a Gas Engine Works. Oldengine.org, n.d. Web. 26

Feb. 2017.

Doppelbauer, Martin. "The Invention of the Electric Motor 1800-1854." History - The Invention of the

Electric Motor 1800-1854. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 25 Sept. 2014. Web. 3 Mar. 2017.

Woodford, Chris. "How Do Electric Motors Work?" Explain That Stuf. Explainthatstuff, 14 Apr. 2016.

Web. 10 Mar. 2017.

Berman, Brad. "History of Hybrid Vehicles." HybridCars.com. Hybridcars, 03 Dec. 2015. Web. 10

Mar. 2017.

"How Does a Hybrid Car Work?" HowStufWorks. N.p., 01 Apr. 2000. Web. 17 Mar. 2017.