ccurs when the piston moves up to compress the gas and air. The piston will need a force to push itself back down. The gas and air compressed against the walls of the cylinder by the piston. In that small space is an ignition device called the spark plug, invented by Edmund Berger in 1839 that will deliver a small spark to the gas and air causing an explosion. This all happens in the explosion stroke, its the stroke that creates all the power in the engine. The piston, still having enough momentum from the explosion, travels back up the cylinder to push the smoke, or exhaust fumes, from the explosion out. This is the final stroke known as the exhaust stroke. All this movement from the piston moves the crankshaft. The crankshaft is connected to the axle, which turns the wheel.This was the basic concept behind the Otto Cycle through which Otto was able to obtain 3 horsepower, basically the power of a lawnmower engine. However humorous this seems to the modern world this was top-of-the-line, high-class, automobile and through the next 10 years, Otto was able to sell more than 30,000 of them.TRANSMISSIONThe Otto Cycle was nothing more than a go-kart. The only major part to it was the engine. During the 1890s Emile Levassor created the first transmission for the automobile. It was very similar to the cone-shaped clutch and sliding gears he observed on woodworking machinery. Without a transmission the automobile lacked speed and produced a higher RPM. This high RPM created more noise and vibration that lead to parts vibrating loose. Also gave a very poor fuel economy for the car.Levassors transmission wasnt very efficient. It was more or less a rough draft that gave Louis Renault the idea to make a more efficient transmission. In 1899 he developed the general layout of a transmission which automobile industries would later use in their products. In Renaults design, he placed a propeller shaft with universal joints that drove ...
