Check out this make-and-break video!
The engine that the Wright brothers used for the first airplane was unique, designed to be as light-weight as possible. As such, they designed it without several components you might expect an engine to have. Not only did it lack a fuel pump, an oil pump, a distributor, and a carburetor, it also didn’t use spark plugs. Instead of spark plugs, the Wrights used a method called “make-and-break” to ignite the gasoline/air mixture in the cylinders. This video, courtesy of Jim Davis, shows how that technique was used in an automobile engine from about the same time as the Wright brothers’ engine.
|