WFather Eugenio Barsanti, also named Nicolò, was an Italian engineer, who together with Felice Matteucci of Florence invented the first version of the internal combustion engine in 1853. Their patent request was granted in London on June 12, 1854, and published in London's Morning Journal under the title "Specification of Eugene Barsanti and Felix Matteucci, Obtaining Motive Power by the Explosion of Gasses", as documented by the Fondazione Barsanti e Matteucci.
WBertha Benz was a German automotive pioneer and inventor. She was the business partner and wife of automobile inventor Karl Benz. On 5 August 1888, she was the first person to drive an automobile over a long distance, field testing the patent Motorwagen, inventing brake lining and solving several practical issues during the journey of 65 miles (105 km). In doing so, she brought the Benz Patent-Motorwagen worldwide attention and got the company its first sales.
WCarl Friedrich Benz, sometimes also Karl Friedrich Benz, was a German engine designer and automotive engineer. His Benz Patent Motorcar from 1885 is considered the first practical automobile. He received a patent for the motorcar in 1886.
WGeorge Bailey Brayton was an American mechanical engineer and inventor. He was noted for introducing the constant pressure engine that is the basis for the gas turbine, and which is now referred to as the Brayton cycle.
WSir Dugald Clerk KBE, LLD FRS was a Scottish engineer who designed the world's first successful two-stroke engine in 1878 and patented it in England in 1881. He was a graduate of Anderson's University in Glasgow, and Yorkshire College, Leeds. He formed the intellectual property firm with George Croydon Marks, called Marks & Clerk. He was knighted on 24 August 1917.
WAdolf Daimler was the son of German inventor and industrialist Gottlieb Daimler. A mechanical engineer by training, Adolf became managing director and co-owner of his father's firm Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft in 1900. Along with his brother Paul Daimler, Adolf is credited with developing the distinctive Mercedes 3-pointed star logo.
WGottlieb Wilhelm Daimler was a German engineer, industrial designer and industrialist born in Schorndorf, in what is now Germany. He was a pioneer of internal-combustion engines and automobile development. He invented the high-speed liquid petroleum-fuelled engine.
WPaul Daimler was a German mechanical engineer who designed automobiles. He was the eldest child of Gottlieb Daimler who founded Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft and invented the petrol engine.
WRudolf Christian Karl Diesel was a German inventor and mechanical engineer, famous for the invention of the Diesel engine, and for his suspicious death at sea. Diesel was the namesake of the 1942 film Diesel.
WCarl Eugen Langen was a German entrepreneur, engineer and inventor, involved in the development of the petrol engine and the Wuppertal Suspension Railway. In 1857 he worked in his father's sugar factory, JJ Langen & Söhne, and after extensive technical training at the Polytechnic institute in Karlsruhe, patented a method for producing sugar cubes. He sold this method in 1872 to Sir Henry Tate of England, founder of the Tate Gallery in London.
WJean Joseph Étienne Lenoir also known as Jean J. Lenoir was a Belgian engineer who developed the internal combustion engine in 1858. Prior designs for such engines were patented as early as 1807, but none were commercially successful. Lenoir's engine was commercialized in sufficient quantities to be considered a success, a first for the internal combustion engine.
WIan Mantle (1920-2010) was a motor vehicle engineer and motor trade entrepreneur who became an important post war influence in the development of touring caravans. He was also a notable rally driver of the Berkeley Sports Car made by Berkeley Cars, whose fibre glass frame prospered in races during the 1950s. During the 1960s Mantle specialised in caravan rallying winning the Ken Wharton Memorial Five Nations championship.
WFelice Matteucci was an Italian hydraulic engineer who co-invented an internal combustion engine with Eugenio Barsanti. Their patent request was granted in London on June 12, 1854, and published in London's Morning Journal under the title "Specification of Eugene Barsanti and Felix Matteucci, Obtaining Motive Power by the Explosion of Gases", as documented by the Fondazione Barsanti e Matteucci.
WWilhelm Maybach (help·info) was an early German engine designer and industrialist. During the 1890s he was hailed in France, then the world centre for car production, as the "King of Designers".
WNicolaus August Otto was a German engineer who successfully developed the compressed charge internal combustion engine which ran on petroleum gas and led to the modern internal combustion engine. The Association of German Engineers (VDI) created DIN standard 1940 which says "Otto Engine: internal combustion engine in which the ignition of the compressed fuel-air mixture is initiated by a timed spark", which has been applied to all engines of this type since.
WRaúl Pateras Pescara de Castelluccio, marquis of Pateras-Pescara, was an engineer, lawyer and inventor from Argentina who specialized in automobiles, helicopters and free-piston engines.
WSir Harry Ralph Ricardo was one of the foremost engine designers and researchers in the early years of the development of the internal combustion engine.
WFrançois Isaac de Rivaz was an inventor and a politician. He invented a hydrogen-powered internal combustion engine with electric ignition and described it in a French patent published in 1807. In 1808 he fitted it into a primitive working vehicle – "the world's first internal combustion powered automobile".
WSir Carl Wilhelm Siemens, anglicised to Charles William Siemens, was a German-British electrical engineer and businessman.
WHerbert Akroyd-Stuart was an English inventor who is noted for his invention of the hot bulb engine, or heavy oil engine.