Hargrave's rotary engine
Motor rotativo de Hargrave
- Date
- 1889 · confidence medium
- Place
- Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Credited to
- Lawrence Hargrave
- Field
- Matter & energy
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A star-shaped engine whose cylinders spin around a fixed crankshaft, light and well cooled by the rotation. Hargrave devised it for flight and did not patent it.
There were several near-simultaneous rotary engine inventors (Millet in France, 1888; Adams-Farwell in the US); Hargrave built his around 1889 and did not patent it.
What it led to
- rotary engines of early aviation, such as the Gnome
- lightweight aircraft engines in the First World War
- debate over priorities and patents