Automotive electronics

History

A 1920s era self-starter

Typical starter installed underneath and toward the rear of an automobile engine

Both Otto cycle and Diesel cycle internal-combustion engines require an external source of power to start, unlike steam engines, as well as electric, hydraulic and air motors. Internal combustion engines use torque from the power strokes of other cylinders, or stored energy in the flywheel (single-cylinder engines) to compress incoming air (and gasoline vapor, for gasoline engines) before it is ignited to develop power.

Originally, a hand-crank was used to start engines, but it was inconvenient, difficult, and dangerous to crank-start an engine. Even though cranks had an overrun mechanism, when the engine started, the crank could begin to spin along with the crankshaft and potentially strike the person cranking the engine. Additionally, care had to be taken to retard the spark in order to prevent backfiring; with an advanced spark setting, the engine could kick back (run in reverse), pulling the crank with it, because the overrun safety mechanism works in one direction only.

Although users were advised to cup their fingers under the crank and pull up, it felt natural for operators to grasp the handle with the fingers on one side, the thumb on the other. Even a simple backfire could result in a broken thumb; it was possible to end up with a broken wrist, or worse. Moreover, increasingly larger engines with higher compression ratios made hand cranking a more physically demanding endeavour.

While the need was fairly obvious—as early as 1899, Clyde J. Coleman applied for U.S. Patent 745,157 for an electric automobile self-starter—inventing one that worked successfully in most conditions did not occur until 1911 when Charles F. Kettering of Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company (DELCO) invented and filed for U.S. Patent 1,150,523 for the first useful electric starter. (Kettering had replaced the hand crank on NCR's cash registers with an electric motor five years earlier.) One aspect of the invention lay in the realization that a relatively small motor, driven with higher voltage and current than would be feasible for continuous operation, could deliver enough power to crank the engine for starting. At the voltage and current levels required, such a motor would burn out in a few minutes of continuous operation, but not during the few seconds needed to start the engine. The starters were first installed by Cadillac on production models in 1912. These starters also worked as generators once the engine was running, a concept that is now being revived in hybrid vehicles. The Model T relied on hand cranks until 1919; by 1920 most manufacturers included self-starters, thus ensuring that anyone, regardless of strength or physical handicap, could easily start a car with an internal combustion engine.