Early patents for spark plugs included those by Nikola Tesla (in U.S. Patent 609,250 for an ignition timing system, 1898), Richard Simms (GB 24859/1898, 1898) and Robert Bosch (GB 26907/1898). Some historians have reported that Edmond Berger invented an early spark plug on February 2, 1839[1]. Karl Benz is also credited with the invention. 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