Engine Knock and Related Problems

Abstract

ONE hundred and thirteen years ago Sir Humphry Davy commenced his magnificent researches on flame, which paved the way for all subsequent work on combustion. It is interesting to remember that Davy specifically thanked Michael Faraday, then twenty-four years old, for “his able assistance” during that work. It was the practical aim to combat the dangers of firedamp in mines that supplied the incentive to Davy's work on combustion. To-day practical ends still supply the main incentive to research on combustion. In one way or another improvement of the internal combustion engine is the source of much of the work that is done.