Philippe le Bon

Who was Philippe le Bon?

Philippe le Bon was a French engineer, born in Brachay, France.

There is much confusion about his life and accomplishments. His main contributions were improvements to steam engines and industrializing the extraction of lighting gas from wood. He died assassinated in 1804.

He also designed, though apparently did not build, a wood gas engine. Like other early engines, it had no compression in its main cylinder. It has three mechanically connected cylinders, each double acting, one to compress the air, one to compress the gas and one driven by the burned mixture. This engine resembles an internal combustion engine, but the combustion actually takes place in a combustion chamber separated by mechanically controlled valves from the cylinders. This makes it a steam engine running on combustion products instead of on steam, or the piston equivalent of a gas turbine.

Hardenberg's analysis shows a theoretical efficiency and specific power much less than those of the earlier Street engine, but this assumes that the intake valve stays open during the whole power stroke.