History
In 1860 Étienne Lenoir used an electric spark plug in his first internal combustion engine and is generally credited with the invention of the spark plug.
Early patents for spark plugs included those by Nikola Tesla (in U.S. Patent 609,250 for an ignition timing system, 1898), Frederick Richard Simms (GB 24859/1898, 1898) and Robert Bosch (GB 26907/1898). But only the invention of the first commercially viable high-voltage spark plug as part of a magneto-based ignition system by Robert Bosch's engineer Gottlob Honold in 1902 made possible the development of the internal combustion engine. Subsequent manufacturing improvements can also be credited to Albert Champion, the Lodge brothers, sons of Sir Oliver Lodge, who developed and manufactured their father's idea and also Kenelm Lee Guinness, of the Guinness brewing family, who developed the KLG brand.
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