I. Read and translate the text.

Дата добавления: 2014-10-29; просмотров: 807

Inventors on both sides of the Atlantic discoveredduring the 1880s that chronologies for making self-propelled carriages and wagons had progresseddramatically. Soon sundryvehicles powered by steam, internal combustion engines, electricitywere rolling across Germany, France, and the United States.

The first practical internal combustion engine was built by Etienne Lenoir, a Belgian living in France. Patented in 1860, his water-cooled contraption burned coal gas and was noisy and inefficient; even so, for two decades it had many buyers. Lenoir’s engine was a clear proof of concept to other inventors, especially in Europe.

Nikolaus Otto, a German, was one of many inspired by Lenoir’s technical and commercial success. Mechanically gifted, Otto sought to improve the Lenoir engine, and in the late 1870s he did. Otto’s four-cycle design embodied features that would become standard in gasoline automobile engines.

The cars of that time were very small, two-seated cars with no roof, driven by an engine placed under the seat. Motorists had to carry large cans of fuel and sep­arate spare parts, for there were no repair or filling stations to serve them.

The Otto engine and the many clones it spawned, though intended to replace small steam engines in in­dustry, inaugurated the era of the gasoline-powered automobile. Clearly, the compact internal com­bustion engine was a most suitable technology for the self-propelled ve­hicle.

Karl Benz, also a German, em­ployed his own Otto-type engine to power a three-wheel carriage in 1885. These three-wheelers, with a one-cyl­inder engine that developed 0,8 hp, were put on the market in 1888, perhaps the earliest commercial auto­mobiles.

In 1891 Benz added a four-wheel motorized carriage to his company’s offerings. These automobiles sold well and were widely imitated. In the early 1890s, for example, Panhard et Levassor as well as Peugeot in France were peddling cars to the public. Henry Ford, however, was still a long way from building automobiles.

II. Answer the questions:

1. Whom was the first internal combustion engine built by?

2. How did Nikolaus Otto improve the Lenoir engine?

3. What were main technical characteristics of three-wheelers designed by Karl Benz?

4. How did the cars of the 19^th century look like?

5. What cars were in selling in late ninetieths of the 19^th century?

III. Are the following statements true or false? Correct the false ones with the right information.

1. The Otto engine intended to replace small steam engines in industry.

2. The first practical internal combustion engine was built by Henry Ford.

3. Karl Benz employed his own Otto-type engine in 1896.

4. Etienne Lenoir was an Italian who lived in Spain.

5. In 1891 Benz added a four-wheel motorized carriage to his company’s offerings.

6. Nikolaus Otto improved the Lenoir engine in the late 1890s.