Millet had patented the engine in 1888, so must be considered the pioneer of the internal combustion rotary engine.
A machine powered by his engine took part in the Paris-Bordeaux-Paris race of 1895 and the system was put into production by Darracq and Company London in 1900. ===Hargrave=== Lawrence Hargrave first developed a rotary engine in 1889 using compressed air, intending to use it in powered flight.
Balzer of New York, a former watchmaker, constructed rotary engines in the 1890s.
Balzer's early designs even dispensed with cooling fins, though subsequent rotaries did have this common feature of air-cooled engines. Balzer produced a 3-cylinder, rotary engined car in 1894, then later became involved in Langley's Aerodrome attempts, which bankrupted him while he tried to make much larger versions of his engines.
A machine powered by his engine took part in the Paris-Bordeaux-Paris race of 1895 and the system was put into production by Darracq and Company London in 1900. ===Hargrave=== Lawrence Hargrave first developed a rotary engine in 1889 using compressed air, intending to use it in powered flight.
Though intended for aviation use, it was not fitted to any aircraft. ===Adams-Farwell=== The Adams-Farwell firm's automobiles, with the firm's first rolling prototypes using 3-cylinder rotary engines designed by Fay Oliver Farwell in 1898, led to production Adams-Farwell cars with first the 3-cylinder, then very shortly thereafter 5-cylinder rotary engines later in 1906, as another early American automaker utilizing rotary engines expressly manufactured for automotive use.
Manly, creating the notable Manly-Balzer engine. ===De Dion-Bouton=== The famous De Dion-Bouton company produced an experimental 4-cylinder rotary engine in 1899.
A machine powered by his engine took part in the Paris-Bordeaux-Paris race of 1895 and the system was put into production by Darracq and Company London in 1900. ===Hargrave=== Lawrence Hargrave first developed a rotary engine in 1889 using compressed air, intending to use it in powered flight.
It has also been asserted that the Gnôme design was derived from the Adams-Farwell, since an Adams-Farwell car is reported to have been demonstrated to the French Army in 1904.
Though intended for aviation use, it was not fitted to any aircraft. ===Adams-Farwell=== The Adams-Farwell firm's automobiles, with the firm's first rolling prototypes using 3-cylinder rotary engines designed by Fay Oliver Farwell in 1898, led to production Adams-Farwell cars with first the 3-cylinder, then very shortly thereafter 5-cylinder rotary engines later in 1906, as another early American automaker utilizing rotary engines expressly manufactured for automotive use.
In 1906 the eldest brother, Louis, had formed the Société des Moteurs Gnome to build stationary engines for industrial use, having licensed production of the Gnom single-cylinder stationary engine from Motorenfabrik Oberursel—who, in turn, built licensed Gnome engines for German aircraft during World War I. Louis was joined by his brother Laurent who designed a rotary engine specifically for aircraft use, using Gnom engine cylinders.
The Seguin brothers then turned to rotary engines in the interests of better cooling, and the world's first production rotary engine, the 7-cylinder, air-cooled "Omega" was shown at the 1908 Paris automobile show.
While somewhat low powered in terms of units of power per litre, its power-to-weight ratio was an outstanding per kg. The following year, 1909, the inventor Roger Ravaud fitted one to his Aéroscaphe, a combination [which he entered in the motor boat and aviation contests at Monaco.
Adams-Farwell engines later powered fixed-wing aircraft in the US after 1910.
As this could cause a serious fire when the switch was released, it became common practice for part or all of the bottom of the basically circular cowling on most rotary engines to be cut away, or fitted with drainage slots. By 1918 a Clerget handbook advised maintaining all necessary control by using the fuel and air controls, and starting and stopping the engine by turning the fuel on and off.
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