Samuel Morey - Internal Combustion Work

Internal Combustion Work

During his experiments, Morey discovered that the vapor of turpentine, when mixed with air, was explosive. He recognized its potential, developed an engine, and wrote an unpublished description in 1824, which he modified in 1825 and 1826. He finally published and patented the idea later in that year. The revisions between the drafts are small, and deal mostly with reworking of the engine’s valves.

The engine has much in common with modern ones. It has two cylinders, a carburetor, a familiar arrangement of valves and cams. However, unlike modern engines, and unlike the earlier 1807 François Isaac de Rivaz engine, the explosion did not directly provide power. Instead, the explosion expelled air from the cylinder through a one-way valve. The cylinder was cooled by a water jacket and water injected into the combustion chamber after it fired. The cooling gasses caused a vacuum and atmospheric pressure drove the piston. Morey did mention trying direct action, and elaborated on it in other descriptions. However, his method was more complicated and possibly less efficient because it used more of the engine’s stroke to draw in fuel.

Morey demonstrated his engine in New York and Philadelphia and there are eyewitness reports for both. In Philadelphia, he demonstrated it powering a boat and a wagon. Unfortunately, when he decided to demonstrate the car on the street, he fell off after starting the engine and the vehicle powered across Market Street into a ditch. This was the second car ride in the world, and the first in the United States. Despite these mostly successful demonstrations, Morey could not find a buyer, and became frustrated. A letter from Reverend Dana of Orford written in October 1829 tells of Morey’s trip to Baltimore, “I am told, the Capt. Is determined to make one more vigorous effort, to sell his patent right for some of his modern inventions, and if he does not now succeed, he will give the matter up, and return to Orford, to spend his days in quiet.” Morey did not find a buyer, and as he was then in his late 60s, it made sense to stop traveling up and down the east coast and call it quits.

While the engine was state of the art, it was not novel in many respects. Morey seemed aware of contemporary internal combustion work – Hardenberg, who wrote a book on Morey’s engine, adeptly noted that in his 1825 draft Morey “stated that he named his invention ‘vapor engine, to distinguish it from the… gas engine.’” However, Hardenberg concludes that Morey could only have known of three engines similar to his. He never mentioned them, and Hardenberg concludes that they did not influence Morey. His internal combustion engine is the first documented in the United States, and his use of liquid fuel and a heated surface carburetor was world's first. Another interesting feature was the wire mesh used to prevent the combustion from reaching the carburetor. This feature was reinvented and patented again in 1872 because the patent office had lost Morey’s patent in the 1836 patent office fire.

The lack of interest in his vapor engine is unfortunate, because the vapor engine was his most farsighted invention. Morey notes in his unpublished 1824 draft that:

He mentions "the earth's surface" because elsewhere he proposed using the engine to propel balloons.

Now that the internal combustion engine’s potential has been realized, people often focus on his engine. The first push to popularize his work was done by Charles Duryea, a fellow inventor who produced the first gasoline engine in America around 1890. He funded the creation of two working replicas of Morey’s Engine—one is in the possession of the Smithsonian and the other is owned by Dean Kamen—and wrote about how Morey’s engine was a direct precursor of the modern engine. He overstates Morey’s influence, which unfortunately is nearly nonexistent. Still the popularization of Morey’s work continues. Recently, this task has been taken up by people other than locals and engineers – including comedian Jay Leno – an avid car collector.