Pistonpunk: WI the combustion engine had come in use from 1807?

Maybe we should aproach this problem from a different angle:
- What kind of advantages could combustion engine (developed in early XIX century) have over contemporary-used steam engines?
 
With his interest in velocipedes, we could have Les Anges de l'Enfer, instead.:p:D And this would star Belmondo.:p

Sounds like we'd have cars but no photography, if the guy who invented it had spent all his time on the IC engine instead. Which probably means no movies and no TV. Boo.
Daguerre & others worked on photography, too, don't :eek::)rolleyes:).
It would probably be seen at first as useful for haulers to pull artillery and such, like the steam-driven models they tried in the Crimea. That would happen in, say, the late 1820s or 1830s. Wouldn't take long for a horseless carriage to follow. It might even lead to an early discovery of oil distillation and seeing that distillations of petroleum work better as fuel that the resin-coal powder that the Niépce brothers discovered. How far the industry's infrastructure spreads will depend on seeing how different wars are fought as they're used as haulers away from the railroads, like an ATL version of the ACW and any colonial conflicts. And, yes, when they start building the airship, these engines will make them far easier to build and use much earlier than OTL. Might start to look slightly like the Draka TL with regards to the technology, without the Draka themselves, of course, and without the 'advanced' firearms. You might start to see asphalt roads being built throughout Europe and the eastern US from the mid-1870s.

Actually, if there were armored cars in the 1840s or so, you'd almost have to have advanced firearms. Otherwise, the armored cars would be more/less invulnerable...:eek: I can picture rifle-caliber organ guns to begin with (later 20-40mm variants), then lightweight hydraulic recoil mechanisms for small-caliber (20-57mm) cannon, & revolver "machineguns" (not unlike the ADEN) before 1860; none of the principles were new... I can accept tanks, too (the caterpiller track had been conceived by 1825, IIRC), but if armored cars appear first, I don't see tanks til quite late; Europe's road net was pretty good, & tanks only become necessary with the very chewed up no-man's land of trench stalemate, which armored cars more/less obviate... Also, tanks are relatively very expensive to build & operate, compared to armored cars. Dominant weapn? Something like this.:p (OK, this is more likely...)
When can we cheaply synthesize aluminum? You don't get heavier than air flight without it, no matter what sort of engine you're working with.
What does that make this? And this?:confused::rolleyes: And this?:confused::rolleyes:
The main problem with early flight was control, not power. So I think that powered flight would come about in say the 1880's.
The basic principles had been discovered by George Cayley in 1809.:eek:

And fuel? You could see widespread cultivation of Jatropha in marginal & even desert areas, making Central America, Arizona/New Mexico, central Mexico, the Kalahari, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Oz, & elsewhere oil-rich areas. (Zanzibari Empire could be the richest nation in Africa.:D) Add palm & nut oil, you can include Hawaii, Burma, India... You'd actually see an increase in cultivation/forestry, rather than a decrease. OPEC would be far less likely to have a monopoly, tho maybe more pressure to gain "oil colonies" sooner.:eek:

Don't forget, unless you want wooden or steel wheels,:eek: you need vulcanized rubber for tires, preferably pneumatics (not solid rubber, tho they'd come first), which means places like Brazil & Indonesia are enormously valuable...& rubber plantations enormously profitable. Eventually, tho, you'd see either planting of Euphorbia (rubber) plants in marginal/semi-arid areas, or artificial rubber; TTL, probably both, since the chemistry is less advanced.

Heat transfer was an inexact art at best until well into the 20th century; i.e., until the work of Dittus, Boelter, Hottel, and a number of other engineers whose names appear on heat transfer correlations was accomplished. Therefore, there will be recurring problems with overheating until that's solved.
It was solved when the demand existed; the Model T's cooling was pretty rudimentary. I see no reason to think scientists were any stupider in 19hC.
* If you're talking about an engine that uses what is known now as the Otto cycle (i.e., a four-stroke, internal combustion engine using a volatile hydrocarbon fuel), a source of high voltage electricity for the spark is mandatory.
IIRC, Daimler's engine used hot-tube igniton, not spark, which I would think the early 19hC could manage...
You'll also have problems with engine knocking due to low octane number fuels given a reliance on naturally occurring branched hydrocarbons. That means frequent engine failures due to damage to cylinders and pistons. Chemistry, particularly organometallic chemistry advanced sufficiently to produce tetraethyl lead on a commercial basis, wasn't available until the 20th century. And even if it were, the production of tetraethyl lead required industrial quantities of metallic sodium, which in turn mandates availability of massive quantities of electric power.
Your presumption tetraethyl lead was required is OTL bias. Ethanol can be, now is, & could easily be substituted; it wasn't OTL as much due to the lobby for tetraethyl lead as anything... The demand for ethanol/methanol TTL would be much less than OTL 2000s, & solutions (some already proposed OTL) can be, would be, found. I've come across refs to plants that can be grown in marginal land, without competition for food, as potential sources, & biofuels might work, too. Or TTL could see liquified gas, including propane, methane, even hydrogen...
Lightweight materials and less power, sounds like just the ticket for heavier-than-air flight, doesn't it?
Aha, you've found the reason airships beat HTAF! Without lightweight engines, HTAF, which need dynamic lift, can't fly.:eek: Airships, which by definition, rely on static lift to fly & only need engines for movement/steering, can get away with heavier engines (such as diesels...).
 
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