Today in Technology History
August 14 (continued)

The images below are from the first American patent for Otto's engine designs. First, there is an excerpt of the patent's text. This is followed by a cross-section of Otto's design for the cylinder where his four strokes take place. The fuel vapor is represented by tiny dots; you can see how fuel enters from the right while air enters from the left. The piston would move downward to compress the mixture of fuel and air.

The picture on the bottom shows a side view of the engine; it gives an idea of how the work done in the cylinder is translated into the motion of a wheel. The cylinder from the previous picture fits (laying down) in the big rectangle on the left. 

These images are courtesy of the U.S. Patent Office; to see the entire patent, enter the patent number (194,047) in the box on this page.

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