Napoleon awarded a patent for the world's first internal combustion engine in 1807
Decades before the first cars appeared, Napoleon Bonaparte granted a patent for the Pyréolophore, a pioneering internal combustion engine that successfully propelled a ship against the currents of the river Saône.
In 1807, Nicéphore Niépce and his brother Claude demonstrated the world's first internal combustion engine. Using a controlled explosion of lycopodium powder—highly flammable moss spores—the device powered a boat upstream in France. Napoleon was so impressed by the technology that he granted the brothers a ten-year patent.
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