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Gunpowder Engine
In 1680, Christiaan Huygens became the first person to experiment with an internal combustion engine, by inventing the gunpowder engine. The engine works by using gunpowder to make a vacuum inside of the piston and cylinder. This causes the atmospheric pressure to drive the piston downwards to eliminate the vacuum. This was the first true engine that used natural agents for power. http://www.eoht.info/page/Gunpowder+engine -
Four stroke internal combustion engine
Although it had already been patented and theorized, Nikolaus Otto was the first person to actually demonstrate it. It is known as both the Otto cycle and by it's more technical name the four stroke cycle. The four strokes in the title refer to intake, compression, power, and exhaust. All of them correspond to one stroke of the piston, so it takes two revolutions of the crankshaft to complete. The whole engine relies on principles we know about gases, like pressure and expansion. -
Source for 4 stroke internal
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Prototype of modern gas engine
Gottleib Daimler was the first person to come up with this. His prototype had a vertical cylinder. It also injected gasoline through the carburetor. Daimler eventually built a two wheeled vehicle with this engine and eventually built the first four motored vehicle
http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aacarsgasa.htm -
Gas fueled car
In 1886, Karl Benz recieved the first patent for a gas fueled car. The first one was a 3 wheel car, and he didn't invent the four wheeled car until 1891. Additionally, he was the first to integrate an internal combustion engine with a chassis and started a company that became the world's leading manufacturer of cars by 1900 http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aacarsgasa.htm -
Theoretical Rocketry
In 1903, Konstantin Tsiolkovsy begins a series of theoretical papers on rocketry. One of his major points was liquid fueled rockets, which use combustible fuels to make kinetic energy. Liquid fuels are relatively easy to use in engineering, and take the shape of their container.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_fuel
