Turbocharger
exhaust-powered forced-induction device for engines
In an internal combustion engine, a turbocharger (also known as a turbo or, formerly, a turbosupercharger) is a forced induction device that compresses the intake air, forcing more air into the engine in order to produce more power for a given displacement.
Turbochargers are distinguished from superchargers in that a turbocharger is powered by the kinetic energy of the exhaust gases, whereas a supercharger is mechanically powered, usually by a belt from the engine's crankshaft. However, up until the mid-20th century, a turbocharger was called a "turbosupercharger" and was considered a type of supercharger.
History
Prior to the invention of the turbocharger, forced induction was only possible using mechanically-powered superchargers. Use of superchargers began in 1878, when several supercharged two-stroke gas engines were built using a design by Scottish engineer Dugald Clerk. Then in 1885, Gottlieb Daimler patented the technique of using a gear-driven pump to force air into an internal combustion engine.
The 1905 patent by Alfred Büchi, a Swiss engineer working at Sulzer is often considered the birth of the turbocharger. This patent was for a compound radial engine with an exhaust-driven axial flow turbine and compressor mounted on a common shaft. The first prototype was finished in 1915 with the aim of overcoming the power loss experienced by aircraft engines due to the decreased density of air at high altitudes. However, the prototype was not reliable and did not reach production.
“Turbocharger” enters the record as exhaust-powered forced-induction device for engines. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Turbocharger, exhaust-powered and forced-induction can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q185525. The Library of Congress control number is sh85138729. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1878, 1885, 1905 and 1915.
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This entry incorporates text from “Turbocharger” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.