First Automatic Spark Advance

[Ivan Saxton]

Though Packard is generally credited with this invention, Automobile Engineering, published by the American Technical Society in 1924 Volume III p221 described a car of the Spring of 1896 which featured this. It also had electric lights, a storeage battery, and a flywheel type of dynamotor similar to the USL used on early L-head Mercers. Bore and stroke of the 2 cyl horizontally opposed engine was stated as 6" by 7".

In the Stutz book Charles Greuter is stated to have built a car which conforms to this description at about that time, but the engine size and automatic advance are not stated.

Greuter was obviously an extraordinary designer, later designing overhead camshaft engines for Holyoke, Matheson, Excelsior, and Stutz. Someone who is closer to the point of origin than I may be able to verify this. It is interesting that in that pioneer era two great minds should have independantly invented this.

[mlander]

The problem here about ?FIRSTS? is we don?t have a good, ?CRITERION OF JUDGEMENT?, First, are we talking about cars only? Secondly, are we going to include or exclude the same invention used on other areas such as railroad, buses, trucks, airplanes or another type of mechanical contrivance?

The example you used, First Automatic Spark Advance?, I?ll bet it was used on a magneto first as the better device, the Delco system, didn?t come until about 10 years later or maybe more. That is why I try to qualify my statement about ,?FIRST? with a statement about just cars or where it was used first. The best example of this that I know of this is the V-8 engine which to my mind the inventor was a Frenchman by the name of Levavassuer in 1902 or 1903. Some people said I was wrong as it had no record of ever being placed in a car which to me is wrong as there wasn?t a predetermined statement as to the CRITERION FOR JUDGEMENT.

Léon Levavasseur (1863-1922). Levavasseur's early training was as a painter but he quickly turned to engineering instead, much to European aviation's benefit. In 1903 he designed an unsuccessful biplane, but in the same year he produced an innovative light (V-8) engine. The 24 hp and 50 hp versions of the Antoinette featured evaporative cooling and fuel injection, and were designed specifically with aviation in mind. The motors powered both Santos-Dumont and Gabriel Voisin's early designs and so formed the bedrock of European success. In 1907, Levavasseur was the designer behind the Gastambide-Mengin monoplane, and it was this design which formed the basis of his successful and elegant Antoinette IV of 1909. In that year, Levavasseur's friend Hubert Latham almost snatched glory from Blériot by crossing the Channel first in an early IV. The type subsequently enjoyed widespread popularity. In 1911, Levavasseur submitted his futuristic Monobloc Antoinette for military trials, but the excellent concept was marred by insufficient engine power. It failed to fly and the Antoinette Company's fortunes declined, with bankruptcy following. But Léon Levavasseur's place in history was already assured

Léon Levavasseur 1863-1921

M.L. Anderson