William Barnett (engineer)

His patent of 1836 is recorded in the Mechanics Magazine[1] as "Certain improvements for generating and purifying gas for the purposes of illumination".

[2] The patent "Obtaining Motive Power" relates to some very early work on the gas internal combustion engine, which is described in more details below.

The patent describes three types of internal combustion engine run using gas as a fuel.

Separate gas and air pumps operates at twice engine speed to deliver the fresh charge to either end of the cylinder and purge the cylinder of exhaust gases, but the piston compresses the charge once the exhaust port is covered.

Praise indeed from an eminent engineer who would subsequently receive a KBE and become a fellow of the Royal Society.