
10 Ignition system
10.1 COIL IGNITION EQUIPMENT
General background
To ignite the combustible charge of air and fuel in the
cylinder, and thereby initiate the power stroke, some
form of ignition system is necessary in the petrol engined
motor vehicle. In fact, it is probably no exaggeration to
say that the modern high-speed petrol engine would
never have been possible were it not for the remarkable
efficiency of its ignition equipment.
The earliest source of ignition was, interestingly
enough, high-tension electricity, this being used by the
Frenchman Etienne Lenoir in 1860 on his famous gas
engine, which thus qualifies as the first spark-ignitio ...