Superchargers have become commonplace in nearly every type of racing sport as well as every type of race car. Today, you find superchargers everywhere. You can see them on formula-1 and muscle sports cars commonly. Additionally, they are on heavy cars like Jaguar F-Pace as well. Now, you may be wondering how superchargers came to be so popular over the years. Here's their brief history to kill your curiosity.

History Superchargers

Even though superchargers are mainly used in cars these days, that was not always the case. The first patented design for an air blower came from two brothers Francis and Philander Marion roots. Their design was for that of blast furnaces and various other industrial applications. After that, the first-ever real supercharger for engines came in 1878.

Dugald Clerk invented this supercharger while he was also making the first-ever dual stroke engine back in 1878; quite the multi-tasking individual. Then a German engineer by the name of Gottlieb Daimler patented an internal combustion engine's supercharging.

At the turn of the century, Louis Renault – one of the founding members of Renault – also received a patent for a centrifugal supercharger in 1902. And finally, Mercedes was the first car to feature a supercharger in its main lineup of cars. Of course, then this became their main lineup of cars known as the Mercedes Benz.

How Does It Work?

Well now that you know a little about where superchargers came from let's talk about how they work and what purpose they serve.  Let's start with the latter and their purpose. Superchargers offer speed to the vehicle, and they do that by allowing more air to come into the engine to allow for more combustion.

Now you may not be a huge fan of science, but we may have to get into some technical science lingo. So put on your thinking caps.

Combustion and Powering the Car

Let's get one thing out of the way - your car runs on combustion. The simple version of this is that air comes into the engine at atmospheric pressure and combines fuel to form a charge. Now think of this charge as a packet of unused energy, much like a firecracker. Inside the engine, the spark plug ignites this charge and combustion occurs.

Now the combustion process releases a lot of energy in the form of an explosion. It is like a firecracker pop. Now this explosion, concentrated above a cylinder head, moves the piston down. This creates a motion that triggers the wheels to move. T put it simply, your car moves due to small explosions in the engine that move pistons that move wheels.