Technikatörténeti szemle 18. (1990-1991)

TANULMÁNYOK - Trudeau, Terence: The Work and Life of John Csonka

decades? Or was it ever really known? The following pages describe the work of John Csonka, his friend Donát Bánki and the story of the atomizing carburetor invented by the two of them. 1. John (Janos) Csonka The (Atomizing) Carburetor During the second half of the nineteenth century the fast expanding small craft industry developed a need to replace steam engines with cheaper and lighter machines. This led first to the use of natural (city) gas as engine driving fuel. However, since natural gas was not available everywhere, it was desirable to replace it in turn with liquid fuels which could more easily be transported in containers. As early as in 1838, William Barrett, an English engineer and the German Siegfried Marcus experimented with primitive surface evaporators, to make gas out of heated