Internal Combustion Engine Development Delayed 10 Years

[Phoenix]

What would be the out come of early 20th century development if i.c. engines were delayed 10 years?

Would powered flight still happen in 1904, or would it be delayed several years?

Would tanks make an appearance on the Western Front?

Would we see more interest in steam and electric powered cars for longer?

 

[tchizek]

Which one (and this should probably be in before 1900 because )

• 1680 - Dutch physicist, Christian Huygens designed (but never built) an internal combustion engine that was to be fueled with gunpowder.
• 1807 - Francois Isaac de Rivaz of Switzerland invented an internal combustion engine that used a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen for fuel. Rivaz designed a car for his engine - the first internal combustion powered automobile. However, his was a very unsuccessful design.
• 1824 - English engineer, Samuel Brown adapted an old Newcomen steam engine to burn gas, and he used it to briefly power a vehicle up Shooter's Hill in London.
• 1858 - Belgian-born engineer, Jean JosephÉtienne Lenoir invented and patented (1860) a double-acting, electric spark-ignition internal combustion engine fueled by coal gas. In 1863, Lenoir attached an improved engine (using petroleum and a primitive carburetor) to a three-wheeled wagon that managed to complete an historic fifty-mile road trip. (See image at top)
• 1862 - Alphonse Beau de Rochas, a French civil engineer, patented but did not build a four-stroke engine (French patent #52,593, January 16, 1862).
• 1864 - Austrian engineer, Siegfried Marcus*, built a one-cylinder engine with a crude carburetor, and attached his engine to a cart for a rocky 500-foot drive. Several years later, Marcus designed a vehicle that briefly ran at 10 mph that a few historians have considered as the forerunner of the modern automobile by being the world's first gasoline-powered vehicle (however, read conflicting notes below).
• 1873 - George Brayton, an American engineer, developed an unsuccessful two-stroke kerosene engine (it used two external pumping cylinders). However, it was considered the first safe and practical oil engine.
• 1866 - German engineers, Eugen Langen and Nikolaus August Otto improved on Lenoir's and de Rochas' designs and invented a more efficient gas engine.
• 1876 - Nikolaus August Otto invented and later patented a successful four-stroke engine, known as the "Otto cycle".
• 1876 - The first successful two-stroke engine was invented by Sir Dougald Clerk.
• 1883 - French engineer, Edouard Delamare-Debouteville, built a single-cylinder four-stroke engine that ran on stove gas. It is not certain if he did indeed build a car, however, Delamare-Debouteville's designs were very advanced for the time - ahead of both Daimler and Benz in some ways at least on paper.
• 1885 - Gottlieb Daimler invented what is often recognized as the prototype of the modern gas engine - with a vertical cylinder, and with gasoline injected through a carburetor (patented in 1887). Daimler first built a two-wheeled vehicle the "Reitwagen" (Riding Carriage) with this engine and a year later built the world's first four-wheeled motor vehicle.
• 1886 - On January 29, Karl Benz received the first patent (DRP No. 37435) for a gas-fueled car.
• 1889 - Daimler built an improved four-stroke engine with mushroom-shaped valves and two V-slant cylinders.
• 1890 - Wilhelm Maybach built the first four-cylinder, four-stroke engine.

(above from link)

And since it was under development for so long 10 years probably doesn't make that much difference on the front end - 1680 to 1690 or 1807 to 1817 doesn't make much difference in the end result by 1890/1900. A delay at 1890 probably will not happen if nothing else happens since there were many, many people working on this problem and if Maybach doesn't build it then Daimler or Benz will.

Tom.

 

[TofuTanker]

There was an American project for a steam tank in WWI.

Of course, the design was inspired by British tanks, so steam tanks' development in a world without effective internal combustion engines is probable, but not guaranteed.

 

[Phoenix]

Which one (and this should probably be in before 1900 because )
And since it was under development for so long 10 years probably doesn't make that much difference on the front end - 1680 to 1690 or 1807 to 1817 doesn't make much difference in the end result by 1890/1900. A delay at 1890 probably will not happen if nothing else happens since there were many, many people working on this problem and if Maybach doesn't build it then Daimler or Benz will.

Tom.

There goes that whole idea.

My original thought was that everything was put back 10 years, and how much would that have affected the first half of the 20th century. Like as was mentioned steam powered tanks. And would that have affected powered flight before WWI? Would it be sufficiently advanced for militaries to adopt early in the war?

Can anyone move this to pre-1900 please?