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Starter (engine)
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== History == [[File:Anlasser 1920er Jahre.jpg|thumb|right|A 1920s era electric self-starter for an [[airship]] engine]] [[File:Jeep 2.5 liter 4-cylinder engine chromed s.jpg|thumb|right|Typical electric starter installed underneath and toward the rear of an automobile engine]] [[File:Riedelanlasser.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Norbert Riedel]]-designed, "APU-style" two-stroke starter motor for a [[Jumo 004]] turbojet engine]] Before the advent of the starter motor, engines were started by various methods including wind-up springs, [[Coffman engine starter|gunpowder cylinders]], and human-powered techniques such as a removable [[Crank (mechanism)|crank]] handle which engaged the front of the crankshaft, pulling on an airplane propeller, or pulling a cord that was wound around an open-face pulley. The hand-crank method was commonly used to start engines, but it was inconvenient, difficult, and dangerous. The behavior of an engine during starting is not always predictable. The engine can kick back, causing sudden reverse rotation. Many manual starters included a [[Freewheel|one-directional slip or release provision]] so that once engine rotation began, the starter would disengage from the engine. In the event of a kickback, the reverse rotation of the engine could suddenly engage the starter, causing the crank to unexpectedly and violently jerk, possibly injuring the operator. For cord-wound starters, a kickback could pull the operator towards the engine or machine, or swing the starter cord and handle at high speed around the starter pulley. Even though cranks had an [[Freewheel#Uses|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 [[Ignition timing|retard the spark]] in order to prevent [[Back-fire|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 and thumb 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 [[wrist fracture|broken wrist]], a [[dislocated shoulder]] or worse. Moreover, increasingly larger engines with higher [[compression ratio]]s made hand cranking a more physically demanding endeavour. The first electric starter was installed on an [[Arnold (automobile)|Arnold]], an adaptation of the Benz Velo, built in 1896 in [[East Peckham]], [[England]], by electrical engineer H. J. Dowsing.<ref>{{cite book|author-link=G.N. Georgano |first=G.N. |last=Georgano |year=1985 |title=Cars 1886β1930 |publisher=Beekman House |isbn=9781855019263}}</ref> In 1903, [[Clyde J. Coleman]] invented and patented the first electric starter in America {{US patent|0745157}}.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bugnion.it/brevetti-storici/745157-electric-starter.pdf |title=Patent No 745 157}}</ref> In 1911, [[Charles F. Kettering]], with [[Henry M. Leland]], of Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company ([[Delco Electronics|DELCO]]), invented and filed {{US patent|1150523}} for an electric starter in America. (Kettering had replaced the hand crank on [[National Cash Register|NCR]]'s [[cash register]]s 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 on the [[Cadillac Model Thirty]] in 1912, with the same system being adopted by [[Lanchester Motor Company|Lanchester]] later that year.<ref name="Olympis1912">{{cite journal|title=Olympia Motor Show |journal=The Automotor Journal |date=23 November 1912 |pages=1402β1412}}</ref> These starters also worked as [[Electrical generator|generator]]s once the engine was running, a concept that is now being revived in [[hybrid vehicle]]s. Although the electric starter motor was to come to dominate the car market, in 1912, there were several competing types of starter,<ref name="Olympis1912"/> with the Adams, [[SCAT (automobile)|S.C.A.T.]] and [[Wolseley Motors|Wolseley]] cars having direct air starters, and [[Sunbeam Motor Car Company|Sunbeam]] introducing an air starter motor with similar approach to that used for the Delco and Scott-Crossley electrical starter motors (i.e. engaging with a toothed ring on the flywheel). The [[Star Motor Company|Star]] and [[Adler (automobile)|Adler]] cars had spring motors (sometimes referred to as clockwork motors), which used the energy stored in a spring driving through a reduction gear. If the car failed to start, the starter handle could be used to wind up the spring for a further attempt. One of the innovations on the first [[Dodge]] car, the [[Dodge 30-35|Model 30-35]] at its introduction in 1914 was an electric starter and electric lighting with a 12-volt system (against the six volts that was usual at the time) as a standard fitment on what was a relatively low-priced car.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sessions |first=Ron |date=February 21, 2017 |title=The Chrysler Museum in Pictures: Gone But Not Forgotten |url=https://www.caranddriver.com/features/g15087437/the-chrysler-museum-in-pictures-gone-but-not-forgotten/ |access-date=September 20, 2024 |website=Car and Driver}}</ref> The Dodge used a combined starter-generator unit, with a [[direct current]] [[dynamo]] permanently coupled by gears to the engine's crankshaft. A system of electrical relays allowed this to be driven as a motor to rotate the engine for starting, and once the starter button was released the controlling switchgear returned the unit to operation as a generator. Because the starter-generator was directly coupled to the engine it did not need a method of engaging and disengaging the motor drive. It thus suffered negligible mechanical wear and was virtually silent in operation. The starter-generator remained a feature of Dodge cars until 1929. The disadvantage of the design was that, as a dual-purpose device, the unit was limited in both its power as a motor and its output as a generator, which became a problem as engine size and electrical demands on cars increased. Controlling the switch between motor and generator modes required dedicated and relatively complex switchgear which was more prone to failure than the heavy-duty contacts of a dedicated starter motor. While the starter-generator dropped out of favour for cars by the 1930s, the concept was still useful for smaller vehicles and was taken up by the German firm [[SIBA Elektrik G.m.b.H|SIBA Elektrik]] which built similar system intended mostly for use on motorcycles, scooters, economy cars (especially those with small-capacity [[two-stroke engine]]s), and marine engines. These were marketed under the 'Dynastart' name. Since motorcycles usually had small engines and limited electrical equipment, as well as restricted space and weight, the Dynastart was a useful feature. The windings for the starter-generator were usually incorporated into the engine's flywheel, thus not requiring a separate unit at all. The [[Ford Model T]] relied on hand cranks until 1919; during the 1920s, electric starters became near-universal on most new cars, making it easier for women and elderly people to drive. It was still common for cars to be supplied with starter handles into the 1960s, and this continued much later for some makes (e.g. [[CitroΓ«n 2CV]] until end of production in 1990). In many cases, cranks were used for setting timing rather than starting the engine as growing displacements and compression ratios made this impractical. Communist bloc cars such as Ladas often still sported crank-starting as late as the 1980s. For the first examples of production German turbojet engines later in World War II, [[Norbert Riedel]] designed a small two-stroke, opposed-twin gasoline engine to start both the [[Junkers Jumo 004]] and [[BMW 003]] aircraft gas turbines as a form of [[auxiliary power unit]] to get the central spindle of each engine design rotating β these were usually installed at the very front of the turbojet, and were themselves started by a pull-rope to get them running during the startup procedure for the jet engines they were fitted to. Before [[Chrysler]]'s 1949 innovation of the key-operated combination ignition-starter switch,<ref>{{cite journal|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=SNkDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA122 |title=Chrysler Family Debut |journal=Popular Mechanics |date=April 1949 |page=122 |first=Wayne |last=Whittacker |volume=91 |issue=4 |access-date=25 May 2015}}</ref> the starter was often operated by the driver pressing a button mounted on the floor or dashboard. Some vehicles had a pedal in the floor that manually engaged the starter drive pinion with the flywheel ring gear, then completed the electrical circuit to the starter motor once the pedal reached the end of its travel. Ferguson tractors from the 1940s, including the [[Ferguson TE20]], had an extra position on the gear lever that engaged the starter switch, ensuring safety by preventing the tractors from being started in gear.<ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=naldQDSyGRQC&pg=PA98 |page=98 |title=Vintage farm tractors: the ultimate tribute to classic tractors |first=Ralph W. |last=Sanders |year=1996 |publisher=Town Square Books |isbn=9780896582804 |access-date=25 May 2015}}</ref>
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