How the Internal Combustion Engine Was Used During the Industrial Revolution

The internal combustion engine was chiefly used to power road vehicles (cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles), small stationary machinery, agricultural equipment, boats, and the first generation of aircraft—primarily during the late phase of the Industrial Revolution (often called the Second Industrial Revolution, c. 1870–1914). While steam engines dominated the early industrial era, internal combustion engines enabled lighter, mobile power that transformed transport, farming, and decentralized industrial work.

From Steam to Piston Power: When Internal Combustion Arrived

For much of the 18th and early 19th centuries, factories and transport leaned on waterwheels and, increasingly, steam engines. Practical internal combustion engines only became reliable and efficient from the 1870s onward, with Nikolaus Otto’s four-stroke engine (1876), Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz’s motor vehicles (mid-1880s), and Rudolf Diesel’s compression-ignition engine (1890s). This placed the technology squarely in the Second Industrial Revolution, when advances in steel, chemicals, electricity, and oil reshaped economies.

Why it mattered

Unlike steam power, which required boilers, water, and fixed infrastructure, internal combustion engines offered compact, high-energy power from liquid fuels. That mobility opened new economic frontiers: rapid overland transport, mechanized farming, portable machinery, and new military and emergency-response capabilities.

What the Internal Combustion Engine Powered

The following list outlines the major practical uses of internal combustion engines as they entered industrial and social life toward the end of the 19th century and the early 20th century.

• Road transport: Automobiles, motorcycles, trucks, buses, and taxis expanded urban mobility, goods delivery, and intercity travel.
• Agriculture: Tractors, harvesters, and pump engines mechanized plowing, threshing, and irrigation, boosting yields and reducing labor intensity.
• Small stationary power: Compact engines drove pumps, compressors, generators, and machine tools in workshops and rural locations without steam or grid power.
• Marine uses: Internal combustion engines powered small boats, coastal craft, and, later, diesel engines for larger ships and submarines (in combination with electric drive underwater).
• Aviation: Lightweight piston engines enabled early aircraft, inaugurating powered flight and rapid aerial transport and reconnaissance.
• Public services and military: Fire engines, ambulances, postal vehicles, and early motorized logistics improved response times and operational reach.

Together, these uses shifted power from centralized steam plants to on-demand, location-flexible engines, accelerating the pace and reach of industrialization in its later phase.

How It Changed Industry and Society

Beyond powering machines, internal combustion reshaped economic organization, labor, and infrastructure. The points below highlight the most consequential impacts.

• Decentralization of power: Factories and workshops could operate small engines on-site, reducing reliance on line shafts and fixed steam installations.
• Speed and reach: Motor vehicles and aircraft compressed time and distance, reshaping supply chains, postal services, and passenger travel.
• Urban and rural transformation: Roads expanded, suburbs grew, and rural areas gained access to pumps, generators, and mechanized farm tools.
• Energy transition: Oil refining, fuel distribution, and lubrication industries scaled up, linking industrial growth to petroleum.
• Labor shifts: Mechanization reduced some forms of manual labor while creating new jobs in engine manufacture, maintenance, and transport services.
• Global trade and military logistics: Faster, motorized movement of goods and troops altered geopolitics and the global economy on the eve of the 20th century.

These changes echoed the earlier steam revolution but extended industrial power into places and tasks steam struggled to reach efficiently or safely.

Key Milestones in Internal Combustion’s Industrial Rise

This timeline highlights pivotal developments that brought internal combustion engines into mainstream industrial use.

1. 1860s–1870s: Early gas engines mature; Nikolaus Otto patents the four-stroke “Otto cycle” engine (1876).
2. 1885–1886: Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz build practical motor vehicles using internal combustion engines.
3. 1890s: Rudolf Diesel develops the diesel engine, improving fuel efficiency and paving the way for heavy-duty applications.
4. 1900s–1910s: Rapid commercialization—taxis, buses, trucks, tractors, small marine craft, and early aircraft adopt IC engines.
5. Pre–World War I: Widespread use in logistics, agriculture, and public services marks internal combustion as a cornerstone of the late Industrial Revolution.

By the early 20th century, internal combustion engines were integral to transportation and distributed power, complementing steam and emerging electrical systems.

Limits and Coexistence with Steam and Electricity

Internal combustion did not immediately replace steam or electricity. Steam remained dominant in heavy rail and large stationary power through the early 20th century, while electric motors increasingly powered factory machinery where grid power existed. Internal combustion thrived where mobility, weight, and quick start-up mattered most, and where liquid fuels were easier to supply than water and coal.

Summary

In the Industrial Revolution’s later phase, internal combustion engines were used to power vehicles on land, sea, and air; to mechanize farms; and to provide portable power for workshops and services. Their chief contribution was mobility and decentralization: delivering adaptable, on-demand power that expanded the scope of industrialization beyond the fixed infrastructure of steam and the wired confines of early electrification.

What is the main purpose of the internal combustion engine?

Internal combustion (IC) engine converts chemical energy derived from liquid or gas fuels into mechanical energy. Then, it rotates a synchronous generator (SG) or an induction generator (IG) that is directly connected to the grid and converts mechanical energy into electrical form.

What did the internal combustion engine replace?

By the early 1900s the internal-combustion engine had replaced the steam engine as the most broadly applied power-generating system not only because of its higher thermal efficiency (there is no transfer of heat from combustion gases to a secondary working fluid that results in losses in efficiency) but also because it …

What was the impact of the internal combustion engine on society?

It revolutionized transportation, leading to the development of cars, trucks, motorcycles, and airplanes. This has made travel faster and more efficient, connecting people and places like never before. It also spurred economic growth, creating jobs in manufacturing, maintenance, and infrastructure development.

What was the internal combustion engine originally used for?

1807: One of the first known working internal combustion engines – called the Pyréolophore – is built by French inventors Claude Niépce and Nicéphore Niépce. This single prototype engine used a series of controlled dust explosions and was used to power a boat upstream in the river Saône in France.