History of the internal combustion engine granted in London on June 12, 1854, and published in London's Morning Journal under the title "Specification of Eugene Barsanti and Felix Matteucci, Obtaining Motive Power by the Explosion of Gasses". In 1860, Belgian Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir produced a gas-fired internal combustion engine. In 1864, Nikolaus Otto patented the first atmospheric gas engine. In 1872, American George Brayton invented the first commercial liquid-fueled internal combustion engine. In 1876, Nikolaus Otto, working with Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach, patented the compressed charge, four-cycle engine. In 1879, Karl Benz patented a reliable two-stroke gas engine. In 1892, Rudolf Diesel developed the
Petrol engine of the difference in burn rates between the two different fuels, petrol engines are mechanically designed with different timing than diesels, so to auto-ignite a petrol engine causes the expansion of gas inside the cylinder to reach its greatest point before the cylinder has reached the "top dead center" (T.D.C) position. Spark plugs are typically set statically or at idle at a minimum of 10 degrees or so of crankshaft rotation before the piston reaches T.D.C, but at much higher values at higher engine speeds to allow time for the fuel-air charge to substantially complete combustion before too much expansion