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-paraffin engine heated by diverted exhaust gas. Petrol-paraffin fuelling is suitable for four-stroke cycle piston engines and wankel engines. A petrol/paraffin engine tends to run hotter whilst burning paraffin, and so the cooling system must be sufficiently robust. Being slower burning, the paraffin requires the longer combustion period that a four-stroke engine can provide; so two-stroke versions are rare J.A.P. used their 16H engine on TVO. Although modern petrol engines may have compression ratios typically between 9:1 and 12:1, a petrol-paraffin engine requires a lower compression ratio of 8:1 or less, to avoid pre-ignition of the fuel-air mixture which would cause damage