††The engines that power most land vehicles today are called internal combustion engines. Tiny explosions caused by burning a fuel and air mixture inside their cylinders drive pistons back and forth, and these movements turn the wheels.
The first internal combustion engine was invented in 1859 by Frenchman Etienne Lenoir. It was fuelled by coal gas rather than petrol. The first such engine to run on petrol was developed by Julius Hock in 1870.
In 1862, a French engineer, Alphonse de Rochas described a four-stroke engine, of the basic type most often used today. He did not actually make the engine. The principle was reinvented by a German engineer, Nikolaus Otto, who patented a four-stroke, gas-fuelled combustion engine in 1877. Otto's engines were used widely before World War I, after which they were superseded by petrol engines. The first diesel engine was made by the German engineer, Rudolph Diesel, in 1894.
