The invention of the internal combustion engine is most probably the result of the developments of several individuals. Around 1780, Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens built an engine that used gunpowder as a fuel, but this engine was far too dangerous to be practical. His assistant, Denis Papin, also experimented with developing an internal combustion engine, building a simple steam-powered device around 1790. Again, this engine was not practical, and not until the early nineteenth century did the development of a practical internal combustion engine become the quest of numerous inventors.

Before then, the steam engine was the power plant of choice. By 1770, the steam engine had been developed to the point that the French engineer Nicolas Cugnot used one to successfully propel a three-wheeled vehicle, and steam power reigned supreme in industry for nearly a century.

Early in the industrial revolution, inventors struggled to develop an...