An ignition system is a system for igniting a fuel-air mixture. Ignition systems are well known in the field of internal combustion engines such as those used in petrol (gasoline) engines used to power the majority of motor vehicles, but they are also used in many other applications such as in oil-fired and gas-fired boilers, rocket engines, etc.
The first ignition system to use an electric spark was probably Alessandro Volta's toy electric pistol from the 1780s. Virtually all petrol engines today use an electric spark for ignition.
Diesel engines rely on fuel compression for ignition, but usually also have glowplugs that preheat the combustion chamber to allow starting of the engine in cold weather. Other engines may use a flame, or a heated tube, for ignition.
Read more about Ignition System: Engine Management, Turbine, Jet, and Rocket Engines
Famous quotes containing the word system:
“New York is more now than the sum of its people and buildings. It makes sense only as a mechanical intelligence, a transporter system for the daily absorbing and nightly redeploying of the human multitudes whose services it requires.”
—Peter Conrad (b. 1948)