Étienne Lenoir
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Jean Joseph Étienne Lenoir, also known as Jean J. Lenoir (12 January 1822 – 4 August 1900), was a Belgian-French engineer who invented the
internal combustion engine An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal comb ...
in 1858. Prior designs for such engines were patented as early as 1807 (
De Rivaz engine The de Rivaz engine was a pioneering reciprocating engine designed and developed from 1804 by the Franco-Swiss inventor Isaac de Rivaz. The engine has a claim to be the world's first internal combustion engine and contained some features of modern ...
) and 1854 ( Barsanti–Matteucci engine). He was born in Mussy-la-Ville (then in
Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...
, part of the Belgian Province of Luxembourg since 1839). In 1838, he immigrated to France, taking up residence in Paris, where he developed an interest in
electroplating Electroplating, also known as electrochemical deposition or electrodeposition, is a process for producing a metal coating on a solid substrate through the redox, reduction of cations of that metal by means of a direct current, direct electric cur ...
. His interest in the subject led him to make several electrical inventions, including an improved
electric telegraph Electrical telegraphy is Point-to-point (telecommunications), point-to-point distance communicating via sending electric signals over wire, a system primarily used from the 1840s until the late 20th century. It was the first electrical telecom ...
.


Lenoir engine

By 1859, Lenoir's experimentation with electricity led him to develop the first internal combustion engine which burned a mixture of
coal gas Coal gas is a flammable gaseous fuel made from coal and supplied to the user via a piped distribution system. It is produced when coal is heated strongly in the absence of air. Town gas is a more general term referring to manufactured gaseous ...
and
air An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...
ignited by a "jumping sparks"
ignition system Ignition systems are used by heat engines to initiate combustion by igniting the fuel-air mixture. In a spark ignition versions of the internal combustion engine (such as petrol engines), the ignition system creates a spark to ignite the fuel-ai ...
by Ruhmkorff coil, and which he patented in 1860. The engine was a steam engine converted to burn gaseous fuel and thus pushed in both directions. The fuel mixture was not compressed before ignition (a system invented in 1801 by Philippe LeBon who developed the use of illuminating gas to light Paris), and the engine was quiet but inefficient, with a power stroke at each end of the cylinder. In 1863, the Hippomobile, with a
coal gas Coal gas is a flammable gaseous fuel made from coal and supplied to the user via a piped distribution system. It is produced when coal is heated strongly in the absence of air. Town gas is a more general term referring to manufactured gaseous ...
fueled, one cylinder, internal combustion engine, made a test drive from
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
to Joinville-le-Pont, covering 18 km in 3 hours. Lenoir was an engineer at Petiene et Cie (Petiene & Company), who supported him in his founding of the companies of ''Corporation Lenoir-Gautier et Cie engines Paris'' and ''Société des Moteurs Lenoir '' in Paris in 1859, with a capitalization of two million ''franc''s and a factory in the ''Rue de la Roquette'', to develop the engine, and a three-wheeled carriage constructed to use it. Although it ran reasonably well, the engine was fuel inefficient, extremely noisy, tended to overheat, and, if sufficient cooling water was not applied, seize up. German engineer H. Boetius describes in an 1861 essay that the Lenoir engine's fuel consumption was falsely advertised. Instead of the promised , the fuel consumption (in a Kuhn-built Lenoir engine) was rather in the range. Nevertheless, ''
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'' reported in September 1860 that the Parisian newspaper ''Cosmos'' had pronounced the steam age over. By 1865, 143 had been sold in Paris alone, and production of Lenoir Gas Engines, by Reading Gas Works in
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, had begun. Lenoir had completed work on his engine in 1859 and had a grand unveiling on 23 January 1860, for twenty guests. In his speech he said, "If it works, I will add carburetor heating, at a constant level, which will allow the use of petrol, or gasoline, or tar, or any resin". He turned on the illuminating gas valve, pushed the flywheel, and the engine came to life. In 1860, Lenoir received a patent for "an air motor expanded by gas combustion" from
Conservatoire national des arts et métiers The (; ; abbr. CNAM) is an AMBA-accredited French ''grande école'' and '' grand établissement''. It is a member of the '' Conférence des Grandes écoles'', which is an equivalent to the Ivy League schools in the United States, Oxbridge in th ...
, no. N.43624


Lenoir's automobiles

Dates vary from 1860 to 1863 on when Lenoir built his automobiles. It is apparent that he built a small carriage with his engine around 1860. His automobile of 1862 was capable of 3 kilometers per hour. In 1861, he put one of his engines in a boat. In 1863, Lenoir demonstrated a second three-wheeled carriage, the Hippomobile, little more than a wagon body set atop a tricycle platform. It was powered by a 2543 cc (155 in3; 180×100 mm, 7.1×3.9in) 1.5 hp, "liquid hydrocarbon" (
petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil or simply oil, is a naturally occurring, yellowish-black liquid chemical mixture found in geological formations, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons. The term ''petroleum'' refers both to naturally occurring un ...
) engine with a primitive
carburettor A carburetor (also spelled carburettor or carburetter) is a device used by a gasoline internal combustion engine to control and mix air and fuel entering the engine. The primary method of adding fuel to the intake air is through the Vent ...
which was patented in 1886. It successfully covered the 11 km (7 mi) from Paris to Joinville-le-Pont and back in about ninety minutes each way, an average speed less than that of a walking man (though doubtless there were breakdowns). This succeeded in attracting the attention of
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Alexander II, and one was sent to Russia, where it vanished; Lenoir was not pleased. In 1863, he sold his patents to Compagnie parisienne de gaz and turned to
motorboat A motorboat or powerboat is a boat that is exclusively powered by an engine; faster examples may be called "speedboats". Some motorboats are fitted with inboard engines, others have an outboard motor installed on the rear, containing the inter ...
s instead, building the first naptha-fueled four-cycle, fueled by ligroin (heavy naptha), in 1888.
Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...
wrote in his 1863 novel Paris in the Twentieth Century of boulevards crowded with horseless carriages, "the Lenoir machine applied to locomotion."


Stationary engines

Most applications of the Lenoir engine were as a stationary power plant powering printing presses, water pumps, and machine tools. They "proved to be rough and noisy after prolonged use", however. Other engineers, especially
Nicolaus Otto Nicolaus August Otto (10 June 1832 – 26 January 1891) was a German engineer who successfully developed the compressed charge internal combustion engine which ran on petroleum gas and led to the modern internal combustion engine. The Associa ...
, began making improvements to internal combustion technology, which soon rendered the Lenoir design obsolete. Fewer than 500 Lenoir engines of 6-20 hp were built, including some under license in Germany.


Electrical engineering

In 1865, Lenoir returned to electrical engineering. He developed a new type of automatic telegraph device that could send information in written form. This device was of great value during the
Franco-Prussian War The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...
. He also installed an improved version of his engine in a 12-meter-long boat for a Mr. Dalloz, who used it on the Seine for two years.Franco-Prussian War


French citizenship

Lenoir was granted French citizenship in 1870 for assistance during the
Franco-Prussian War The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...
, and awarded the ''
Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...
'' for developments in
telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...
y in 1881. Lenoir was impoverished in later years despite his engine's relative success.


Honors

On 16 July 1900, not long before his death, Lenoir received an award from the ACF (
Automobile Club de France The Automobile Club of France () (ACF) is a men's club founded on 12 November 1895 by Albert de Dion, , and its first president, the Dutch-born Baron Étienne van Zuylen van Nyevelt. The Automobile Club of France, also known in French as "ACF" o ...
), which was a vermeil plate with the inscription, ''"In recognition of his great merits as an inventor of the gas engine and builder of the first car in the world."'' Lenoir Rock in
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is not named after the engineer, but after a scientific instrument maker also named
Étienne Lenoir Jean Joseph Étienne Lenoir, also known as Jean J. Lenoir (12 January 1822 – 4 August 1900), was a Belgian-French engineer who invented the internal combustion engine in 1858. Prior designs for such engines were patented as early as 1807 (De ...
. Lenoir died in La Varenne-Sainte-Hilaire on 4 August 1900.


See also

* Hippomobile *
History of the internal combustion engine Internal combustion engines date back to between the 10th and 13th centuries, when the first rocket engines were invented in China. Following the first commercial steam engine (a type of external combustion engine) by Thomas Savery in 1698, var ...
*
Lenoir cycle The Lenoir cycle is an idealized thermodynamic cycle often used to model a pulse jet engine. It is based on the operation of an engine patented by Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir in 1860. This engine is often thought of as the first commercially pro ...
*
Timeline of hydrogen technologies This is a timeline of the history of hydrogen technology. Timeline 16th century * c. 1520 – First recorded observation of hydrogen by Paracelsus through dissolution of metals (iron, zinc, and tin) in sulfuric acid. 17th century * 1625 – F ...


References


Sources

*
G.N. Georgano George Nicolas "Nick" Georgano (29 February 1932 – 22 October 2017Nick Georgano
Alvis Archive Bl ...
''Cars: Early and Vintage 1886–1930''. London: Grange-Universal, 1990 (reprints AB Nordbok 1985 edition). . * Wise, David Burgess, "Lenoir: The Motoring Pioneer" in Ward, Ian, executive editor. ''The World of Automobiles'', p. 1181–2. London: Orbis Publishing, 1974.


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lenoir, Etienne 1822 births 1900 deaths 19th-century Belgian engineers 19th-century Belgian inventors Naturalized citizens of France 19th-century French inventors French automotive pioneers People associated with the internal combustion engine