The Automobile in American History and Culture Essay

The Automobile in American History and Culture - Essay Example Cars operate on the four-stroke combustion cycle to convert the gasoline into motion (Gottlieb, 1997). The four-stroke combustion cycle is also known as the Otto cycle a name that honors Nikolaus Otto who invented the technology in 1867. Successive improvements on both the technology and other features of a car have resulted in the near perfect modern car that boasts of increased efficiency. Â  Development of the car engine readily manifests in the features of the contemporary car engine most of which portray dedicated technological improvements that succeeded in the modern day engine from the traditional engine invented hundreds of years ago. Among the features that prove the difference are engine sizes, efficiency, power and supporting components among many others. Efficiency in the modern car engines arises from the completeness of combustion. Engines emit smoke through the exhaust pipes depicting the incompleteness of the combustion (Brain, 2014). Old engines, for example, emitted more smoke and thus consumed more gasoline per mile. This arose from particular features of the engine that inventors improved progressively thereby resulting in the modern day engine. Direct injection, for example, is a major invention that has increased the efficiency of combustion thereby reducing the fuel consumption of cars while increasing the power that engines produce. Additionally , the reduced amount of smoke that modern engines emit has reduced the amount of pollution, which was a major concern with the traditional engines (Norman, 1902). Â  Other features of the modern engine that improves its efficiency include mechanisms of compressing air and cylinder deactivation. Air compression ensures that the gasoline receives adequate air to sustain efficient combustion of the fuel.