Jewish Invention Myths: The Internal Combustion Engine

Did you know some jews claim to have invented the internal combustion engine?

Well Pam Karp is a good example given that she claims by implication that a jew named Francois Isaac de Rivaz invented the internal combustion engine (aka the ‘De Rivaz Engine’) in 1807.

However, there are two flies in the ointment of this jewish claim: Francois Isaac de Rivaz wasn’t – as best I can work out – jewish (2) and the ‘De Rivaz Engine’ of 1807 wasn’t actually the first internal combustion engine in the first place.

Let’s briefly cover the history of the internal combustion engine.

The first internal combustion engine as we’d understand it – the ‘Huygens Engine’ - was invented by the Dutch mathematician and physicist Christiaan Huygens in 1678 who created a design for one in that year and further modified his design up to 1682. (3)

The first internal combustion engine to be powered by petrol/gasoline was actually invented and patented by English inventor Robert Street in 1794 (4) then the two stroke petrol engine was theorised by French engineer Philippe Lebon in 1801 (5) and then we have Francois Isaac de Rivaz’s ‘De Rivaz Engine’ which was invented by him in 1807 and notably was attached by de Rivaz to a wooden carriage along with the ‘Pyreolophore’ – also created in 1807 – by the Niepce brothers (Joseph and Claude) which was patented in the same year with the personal approval of Napoleon Bonaparte. (6)

Now we can see that Francois Isaac de Rivaz didn’t actually invent the internal combustion engine; I have to also point out that de Rivaz’s biographers don’t think he is jewish at al but rather a Frenchman from the provinces. (7)

The only thing I can assume is that Karp assumed that because de Rivaz sounds Spanish/Portuguese that therefore Francois Isaac de Rivaz was ‘descended from Sephardi jews’ who fled the Iberian peninsula to France, but this simply isn’t true if we but consult the biographical literature on Francois Isaac de Rivaz!

Yet another case of jews simply making stuff up!

References

(1) https://www.geni.com/projects/Jewish-Inventors/12388

(2) For example: https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/fr/articles/042287/2009-10-16/

(3) Robert Lindsay Galloway, 1881, ‘The Steam Engine and Its Inventors: A Historical Sketch’, 1st Edition, MacMillan: London, pp. 21-25

(4) https://maritime-executive.com/article/2010-6-24-evolution-internal-combustion-engines

(5) https://thejohnrobson.com/blog/all-hail-the-pyreolophore

(6) https://photo-museum.org/fr/le-pyreolophore-un-nouveau-principe-de-moteur/

(7) Henri Michelet, 1965, ‘L'inventeur Isaac de Rivaz (1752-1828)’, 1st Edition, Imprimerie Pillet: Martigny, pp. 25-30