Use in Cars
Very early gasoline (petrol) internal combustion engines used a magneto ignition system, since no battery was fitted to the vehicle; magnetoes are still used in piston-engine aircraft. The voltage produced by a magneto is dependent on the speed of the engine, making starting difficult. A battery-operated coil can provide a high-voltage spark even at low speeds, making starting easier. When batteries became common in automobiles for cranking and lighting, the ignition coil system displaced magneto ignition.
In older vehicles a single (large) coil would serve all the spark plugs via the ignition distributor. Notable exceptions are the Saab 92, some Volkswagens, and the Wartburg 353 which have one ignition coil per cylinder. The flat twin cylinder 1948 Citroën 2CV used one double ended coil without a distributor, and just contact breakers, in a wasted spark system.
Read more about this topic: Ignition Coil
Famous quotes containing the word cars:
“I think that cars today are almost the exact equivalent of the great Gothic cathedrals: I mean the supreme creation of an era, conceived with passion by unknown artists, and consumed in image if not in usage by a whole population which appropriates them as a purely magical object.”
—Roland Barthes (1915–1980)