Pyréolophore

Pyréolophore
1806 diagram of the Pyréolophore, of 1806 drawn by

the Niépce brothers
Pyréolophore
Ou nouvelle
The Pyréolophore[a] Machine dont
(French: [pi.ʁe.ɔ.lɔ.fɔʁ]) le principe
moteur est l'air
was one of the world's
dilaté par le
first internal combustion
feu.
engines. It was invented
(A new
in the early 19th century Machine
in Chalon-sur-Saône, whose driving
France, by the Niépce principle is air
brothers: Nicéphore (who dilated by
fire.)
went on to invent
photography) and Claude. The patent
In 1807 the brothers ran a application

written by the
prototype internal
Niépce
combustion engine, and
brothers in
on 20 July 1807 a patent 1807 and
was granted by Napoleon granted by

Napoleon
Bonaparte after it had
Bonaparte on
successfully powered a
20 July
boat upstream on the
1807[1]
river Saône.
The Pyréolophore ran on what were

believed to be "controlled dust explosions"
of various experimental fuels. The fuels
included mixtures of Lycopodium powder
(the spores of Lycopodium, or clubmoss),
finely crushed coal dust, and resin.
Operating independently, in 1807 the
Swiss engineer François Isaac de Rivaz
built the de Rivaz engine, a hydrogen-
powered internal combustion engine.
These practical engineering projects may
have followed the 1680 theoretical design
of an internal combustion engine by the
Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens. The
separate, virtually contemporaneous
implementations of this design in different
modes of transport means that the de
Rivaz engine may be correctly described
as the first use of an internal combustion
engine in an automobile (1808), whilst the
Pyréolophore was the first use of an
internal combustion engine in a boat
(1807).
Preliminary research
Nicéphore Niépce
The Niépce brothers were living in Nice

when they began their project to create an
engine based on the newly defined
principle of hot air expanding during an
explosion. The challenge was to find a way
to harness the energy released in a series
of explosions.[1]
In 1806 the Niépce brothers had presented

a paper on their research to the French
National Commission of the Academy of
Science (French: Institute National de
Science). The Commission's verdict was:
The fuel ordinarily used by MM.

Niépce is made of lycopodium
spores, the combustion of which
is the most intense and the
easiest; however this material
being costly, they replaced it
with pulverized coal and mixed
it if necessary with a small
portion of resin, which works
very well, as was proved by
many experiments. In Mm.
Niépces' machine no portion of
heat is dispersed in advance; the
moving force is an
instantaneous result, and all the
fuel effect is used to produce the
dilatation that causes the
moving force.
— Lazare Carnot and C. L.

Berthollet, Report for the
National Commission of the
Academy of Science, 15
December 1806[1][2]
Proof of concept
In 1807 the brothers constructed and ran a
prototype internal combustion engine, and
received a patent for ten years from the
Bureau of Arts and Trades (French: Bureau
des Arts et Métiers) in Paris.[3] The patent
was signed by Emperor Napoleon
Bonaparte and dated 20 July 1807,[1] the
same year that Swiss engineer François
Isaac de Rivaz constructed and ran a
hydrogen-powered internal combustion
engine. It is not clear how much these
practical engineering projects owe to the
theoretical designs of 1680 by the Dutch
scientist Christiaan Huygens.[1][3]
The Pyréolophore ran on controlled dust
explosions of various experimental fuels,
including various mixtures of finely
crushed coal dust, Lycopodium powder,
and resin. De Rivaz, meanwhile, was using
a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen.[4]
River Saône at Chalon, site of the first trials of the

Pyréolophore in 1807
To prove the utility of the Pyréolophore to
the patent commission, the brothers
installed it on a boat, which it powered
upstream on the river Saône. The total
weight was 9 quintals, about 900 kg
(2,000 lb),[5] fuel consumption was
reported as "one hundred and twenty-five
grains per minute" (about 125 grains or 8
grams per minute), and the performance
was 12–13 explosions per minute. The
boat was propelled forward as the
Pyréolophore sucked in the river water at
the front and then pumped it out towards
the rear.[1] Thus, the Commissioners
concluded that "the machine proposed
under the name Pyreolophore by Mm.
Niépce is ingenious, that it may become
very interesting by its physical and
economical results, and deserves the
approbation of the Commission."[1]
Operation
The operation of the Pyréolophore was
first described in a meeting at the
Academy of Sciences on 15 December
1806. Lazare Carnot noted that "there was
a bright flash of the 'spores of lycopodium'
inside their sealed copper machine... The
Niépce brothers, by their own device and
without using water, have managed to
create a commotion (explosion) in a
confined space which is so strong that the
effects appear to be comparable to a
steam engine or fire pump".[1]
The Pyréolophore operated as a series of

discrete burns at a frequency of about 12
per minute to power a boat. Power was
delivered in pulses, each pulse forcing
water from the engine's tail pipe set under
the boat and pointing towards its stern.
The boat was pushed forward at each
pulse by the reactive force of the ejected
mass of water.[6]
A Pyréolophore engine consists of two

principal interconnected chambers: a
firelighting chamber and a combustion
chamber. There is also a bellows for
injecting air, a fuel dispenser, an ignition
device, and a submerged exhaust pipe.
There is a means of storing energy at each
explosion in order to work the mechanism
as it prepares itself for the next cycle.[6]
A mechanically operated bellows injects a

jet of air into the first chamber where
ignition will take place. Mechanical timing
lets fall a measured amount of powder
fuel into the jet so that it is blown along
and mixed with it. Under the control of the
mechanical timing mechanism a
smoldering fuse is introduced to this fuel
air jet at the precise moment it passes the
fuse location. The fuse then withdraws
behind a metal plate. The now burning ball
of powder and air travels through a wide
nozzle into the main combustion chamber
where a fast, almost explosive, burn takes
place. The whole system now being
almost airtight, a build-up of pressure
follows. The pressure acts against the
column of water in the exhaust pipe and
expels it from the system. As the flow of
exhaust gas moves into the tail pipe, it
moves a loose piston in the combustion
chamber which extracts and stores
sufficient power to work the machine's
timing mechanisms. Energy from this
piston is stored by lifting weights attached
to a balance wheel. The return of this
wheel to its lower position under the pull
of the weights governs the timing for the
next cycle by operating the bellows, fuel
dispenser, the fuse and valves at the
correct points in the cycle. The tail pipe,
being under the boat, fills with water ready
for the next discharge. The fall of the
timing piston also expels the exhaust
gases via a pipe above the ignition
chamber, which is closed off by a valve
during the burn part of the cycle.[6]
Further development
On 24 December 1807, the brothers
reported to Lazare Carnot that they had
developed a new, highly flammable fuel
(powder) by mixing one part resin with
nine parts of crushed coal dust.[1]
In 1817 the brothers achieved another first
by using a rudimentary fuel injection
system.[7]
By 1817 there was insufficient progress to

attract subsidy and investment, so the ten-
year patent expired. Worried about losing
control of the engine, Claude traveled first
to Paris and then to England in an attempt
to further the project. He received the
patent consent of King George III on 23
December 1817.[8] This was not the key to
success. Over the next ten years, Claude
remained in London, settled in Kew and
descended into delirium, whereby he
squandered much of the family fortune
chasing inappropriate business
opportunities for the Pyréolophore.[9][10]
Nicéphore, meanwhile, was also occupied
with the task of inventing photography.[11]
Design flaw …
In 1824, after the brothers' project had lost

momentum, the French physicist Nicolas
Léonard Sadi Carnot scientifically
established the thermodynamic theory of
idealized heat engines. This highlighted
the flaw in the design of the Pyréolophore,
whereby it needed a compression
mechanism to increase the difference
between the upper and lower working
temperatures and potentially unlock
sufficient power and efficiency.
Reconstruction
To celebrate the bicentenary, the Paris
Photographic Institute (Spéos) and the
Niépce House Museum produced a 3D
animation of the working machine in 2010.
Manuel Bonnet and Jean-Louis Bruley of
the Maison Nicéphore Nièpce and Hadrien
Duhamel of the École Nationale Supérieure
d'Arts et Métiers (ENSAM) created the
video.[6]
See also
Timeline of transportation technology
History of the internal combustion
engine
Timeline of heat engine technology
References
a. from Ancient Greek πῦρ (pyr), meaning
'fire', Αἴολος (Aiolos), meaning 'wind',
and -φόρος (-phoros), meaning
'bearer')
1. "Other Inventions: The Pyrelophore" .
Niépce House Museum. Retrieved
31 March 2017.
2. Berthollet and Carnot (1807). "Rapport
sur une nouvelle machine inventée par
MM. Niepce et nommée par eux
pyréolophore" [Report on a new
machine invented by Messrs. Niepce
and named by them the
"pyréolophore"]. Mémoires de la
Classe des Sciences Mathématiques
et Physiques de l'Institut National de
France (in French): 146–153, see p.
151.
3. Coulibaly, T. (2007). Il y a une siècle,
l'Automobile [A Century of the
Automobile] (in French). Ouest France.
p. 10.
4. Eckermann, Erik (2001). World History
of the Automobile . Warrendale,
Pennsylvania: Society of Automotive
Engineers. p. 18. ISBN 0-7680-0800-X.
Retrieved 17 August 2010.
5. https://photo-museum.org/fr/le-
pyreolophore-un-nouveau-principe-de-
moteur/
. Bonnet, Manuel; Bruley, Jean-Louis;
Duhamel, Hadrien (19 July 2010).
Pyréolophore . youtube.com. Maison
Nicéphore Nièpce / École Nationale
Supérieure d'Arts et Métiers (ENSAM).
7. The Pyreolophore at photo-
museum.org Accessed 5 July 2017
. "Licence issued by George III of
England on 23 December 1817" (in
French). Niepce House Museum.
9. "Nicephore Niepce NB Subtitled (From
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)" . all-
art.org. Retrieved 19 August 2010.
Accessed 5 July 2017
10. "Joseph Nicéphore Niepce Biography
(1765–1833)" . madehow.com.
11. "The First Photograph — Heliography" .
Archived from the original on 6
October 2009. Retrieved 29 September
2009. "from Helmut Gernsheim's
article, "The 150th Anniversary of
Photography," in History of
Photography, Vol. I, No. 1, January
1977: ... In 1822, Niépce coated a
glass plate ... The sunlight passing
through ... This first permanent
example ... was destroyed ... some
years later." Accessed 5 July 2017
External links
Website about Niépce (in French)
Website about Niépce (in English)
3D video of the inner workings of the
Pyréolophore – by Hadrien Duhamel of
École Nationale Supérieure d'Arts et
Métiers (ENSAM). Project supervised by
Manuel Bonnet and Jean-Louis Bruley of
the Maison Nicéphore Niépce. YouTube,
Accessed March 2012
Gallery and archive at the Niépce
House Museum
…
Exhibit 0: Index of all 28 exhibits in the

on-line archive
Exhibit 1: Bicentenary of the invention of
the Pyréolophore. The 1st internal
combustion engine. Presented by 'The
Academy of Science'
Exhibit 7: Letter from Louis Charles
Brunet to Claude Niépce, 29 July 1806
Exhibit 8: Letter from Louis Charles
Brunet to Claude Niépce, 3 August
1806
Exhibit 9: Full life and cutaway drawings
of the Pyréolophore
Exhibit 10: Technical drawing of the
Pyréolophore and the hull in which it
was installed.
Exhibit 11: Letter from les frères Niépce
to Nompère de Champagny, Minister of
the Interior, 9 November 1806
Exhibit 21: Certificate of Patent (Brevet)
1791
Exhibit 22: Napoleon's signed patent
consent. 20 July 1807
Exhibit 23: Letter from Hely d'Oissel to
the Minister of the Interior, 24 November
1808
Exhibit 25: Letter from Nicéphore to
Claude on 26 March 1817
http://www.niepce-letters-and-
documents.com
http://www.niepce-correspondance-et-
papiers.com
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title=Pyréolophore&oldid=968569383"
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1806 diagram of the Pyréolophore, of 1806 drawn by

In 1807 the brothers ran a application

was granted by Napoleon granted by

The Pyréolophore ran on what were

The Niépce brothers were living in Nice

In 1806 the Niépce brothers had presented

The fuel ordinarily used by MM.

— Lazare Carnot and C. L.

River Saône at Chalon, site of the ﬁrst trials of the

The Pyréolophore operated as a series of

A Pyréolophore engine consists of two

A mechanically operated bellows injects a

By 1817 there was insuﬃcient progress to

In 1824, after the brothers' project had lost

Exhibit 0: Index of all 28 exhibits in the

Content is available under CC BY-SA 3.0 unless

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