Editing Engine (section)

=== Industrial Revolution ===
[[Image:Boulton and Watt centrifugal governor-MJ.jpg|thumb|upright|Boulton & Watt engine of 1788]]
The [[Watt steam engine]] was the first type of steam engine to make use of steam at a pressure just above [[atmospheric pressure|atmospheric]] to drive the piston helped by a partial vacuum. Improving on the design of the 1712 [[Newcomen steam engine]], the Watt steam engine, developed sporadically from 1763 to 1775, was a great step in the development of the steam engine. Offering a dramatic increase in [[fuel efficiency]], [[James Watt]]'s design became synonymous with steam engines, due in no small part to his business partner, [[Matthew Boulton]]. It enabled rapid development of efficient semi-automated factories on a previously unimaginable scale in places where waterpower was not available. Later development led to [[steam locomotive]]s and great expansion of [[Rail transport|railway transportation]].

As for internal combustion [[piston engine]]s, these were tested in France in 1807 by [[de Rivaz]] and independently, by the [[Nicéphore Niépce|Niépce brothers]]. They were theoretically advanced by [[Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot|Carnot]] in 1824.{{citation needed|date=May 2011}} In 1853–57 [[Eugenio Barsanti]] and [[Felice Matteucci]] invented and patented an engine using the free-piston principle that was possibly the first 4-cycle engine.<ref>{{cite web|title=La documentazione essenziale per l'attribuzione della scoperta|url=http://www.barsantiematteucci.it/inglese/documentiStorici.html|quote=A later request was presented to the Patent Office of the Reign of Piedmont, under No. 700 of Volume VII of that Office. The text of this patent request is not available, only a photo of the table containing a drawing of the engine. This may have been either a new patent or an extension of a patent granted three days earlier, on 30 December 1857, at Turin.|access-date=24 February 2014|archive-date=25 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170225042248/http://www.barsantiematteucci.it/inglese/documentiStorici.html}}</ref>

The invention of an [[internal combustion engine]] which was later commercially successful was made during 1860 by [[Etienne Lenoir]].<ref>Victor Albert Walter Hillier, Peter Coombes – [https://books.google.com/books?id=DoYaRsNFlEYC&dq=cc+engine&pg=PA34 ''Hillier's Fundamentals of Motor Vehicle Technology'', Book 1] Nelson Thornes, 2004  {{ISBN|0-7487-8082-3}} [Retrieved 2016-06-16]</ref>

In 1877, the [[Otto cycle]] was capable of giving a far higher [[power-to-weight ratio]] than steam engines and worked much better for many transportation applications such as cars and aircraft.

[[File:Mercedes V6 DTM Rennmotor 1996.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|A V6 [[internal combustion engine]] from a [[Mercedes-Benz]]]]