George Brayton

George Bailey Brayton was an American mechanical engineer and inventor from Rhode Island who patented his Ready Motor engine in 1872, a design with a separate compression cylinder, a receiving reservoir and a separate power cylinder in which the fuel and air mixture burned at constant pressure as it moved between them. The thermodynamic cycle it demonstrated is still called the Brayton cycle and underlies modern gas turbine engines. Brayton's engine ran first on vaporized gas and later on liquid fuels such as kerosene and oil, and in 1874 he patented a fuel injection system that fed fuel in as air entered the expansion cylinder, eliminating the dangerous flashback explosions earlier versions were prone to. His engine powered the experimental Fenian Ram submarine in 1881, and though it was eventually overshadowed by the Otto engine, its fuel injection and ignition approach influenced the later development of the diesel engine.