All About Engines

CHAPTER VIII The Petrol Motor HARDLY any other invention has had such an im- portant and immediate effect upon habits of life and methods of warfare as the petrol motor. For more than a century men had dreamed of a horseless car- riage propelled by mechanical power, and their efforts had all fallen short of success for want of an engine at once light, reliable, and sufficiently powerful for the task. For twenty years a few daring spirits made perilous experiments in aerial flight, but lacked an engine light enough to be mounted on their machines. During several hundred years there had been isolated attempts to construct a submarine boat, but no means of mechanical propulsion were available which could be used under water. The same space of twenty years witnessed a new method of locomotion on land, and saw man acquire the power of navi- gating both the ocean of air and the still depths of the sea. The early inventors of internal combustion engines did not confine their efforts to the use of gaseous fuel, though it was by this means that success was first attained. They tried various liquids and devised all sorts of contrivances to get these liquids to burn. But it was not until 1884 that the difficulties were 206