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The internal combustion engine has a very long history. Leonardo da Vinci came up with a “fire engine” back in 1509, and from this date onwards many others carried out experiments and developed the ideas and theories that eventually brought us the internal combustion engine.
In 1845, two Italians, Niccolo Barsanti (1821-64) and Felice Matteucci (1808-87), met and began experiments that led to what some consider to be the invention of the internal combustion engine.
Barsanti received his education from the Piarist religious order, which was dedicated to providing free education for poor children. It was particularly known for its interest in science, and on completing his education Barsanti joined the community. He began teaching maths and physics in Volterra, and in 1843, while demonstrating Alessandro Volta’s pistol to his students, he was struck with inspiration. Volta’s pistol consisted of a cylinder filled with a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen. A spark was generated which ignited the gas in the cylinder, which then expanded and caused an explosion, expelling the cork that sealed the cylinder. Barsanti was inspired to harness the force of the explosion to create an efficient engine.
He did not begin to explore his ideas until 1845, when he became a lecturer in mechanics and hydraulics at the Ximeniano School in Florence. The head of the school, Padre Antonelli, encouraged him to consult Felice Matteucci, a hydraulic engineer who regularly came to the school. The two men proceeded to carry out a series of experiments to check the validity of Barsanti’s ideas. In 1853, they deposited a sealed account of their experiments, findings and notes about the engine design with the Academy of Georgofili in Florence. They obtained patents, formed the New Engine Company, and by 1856 an engine driving a drill and a cutting tool was in use at the Maria Antonia railway station workshops in Florence.
This engine offered low fuel consumption, but limited power. There was a market for such engines, but Barsanti and Matteucci did not develop this potential into a design that could be mass-produced. Instead, they began to develop higher-powered free-piston engines.
Together with Giovanni Battista Babacci, a mechanic, and Father Filippo Cecchi, a Piarist colleague of Barsanti, they developed an early example of an opposed-piston engine. While they were investigating this ultimately unsuccessful line of enquiry, Jean Lenoir began producing gas engines in Paris. Barsanti and Matteucci, who considered themselves to be the inventors of the internal combustion engine, felt that their patent rights were being infringed.
Matteucci travelled to Paris to fight for their rights, but was unsuccessful. He subsequently suffered a nervous breakdown.
Barsanti continued his development work, abandoning the opposed-piston engine to work on a new 4hp single-cylinder engine with auxiliary piston, which was built in 1863. It was tested by a committee of the Lombardy Institute of Science, Letters and Arts. Their report was very positive, and found the gas consumption to be five times lower than that of Lenoir’s engine. The report, and resulting silver medal, generated much interest.
A number of engines were ordered, and an agreement to manufacture was made with the John Cockerill Company in Seraing, Belgium. Barsanti travelled to Seraing with the prototype engine in March 1864. According to Barsanti’s letters, initial tests were positive, but before they could be concluded he fell ill with typhoid fever, and died within a few weeks.
Written instructions from the New Engine Company brought development of the engine to a halt, and the company lost its direction.
Little happened until 1867, when an Otto-Langen engine was awarded a gold medal at the Paris Universal Exhibition. E Durand, the editor of Le Gaz magazine, noticed that the engine bore a strong resemblance to the Barsanti-Matteucci design. Durand wrote an editorial on the subject, which he sent to Matteucci, who travelled to Paris as a result. Despite Matteucci’s protests, the jury argued that there were differences between the engines, and his objection was unsuccessful.