Gas engine

At a time when gas was being installed on every floor in apartment buildings, Lenoir turned a small steam engine into an internal combustion engine. He injected a mixture of lighting gas and air directly into the cylinder to trigger an explosion when it came into contact with a spark plug, which he also invented. All that needed to be done was to open the gas tap, supply the sparking system with a battery and start the flywheel to hear the first explosions and start the engine. The engine was small and immediately operational but limited by low yield and high consumption. The explosion was frightening and the sudden jolt with which it started up caused much more wear and tear than the smooth, quiet release of steam. Lenoir perfected his invention by compressing the air/gas mixture before combustion, making the combustion chamber more airtight and introducing a closed-circuit cooling system, but the engine had no large-scale applications until the first automobiles appeared.