Firing on all cylinders
<p>The first figurative use of this idiom, meaning to work or perform at maximum efficiency is recorded in America from 1912. It obviously derives from the workings of the internal combustion engine after it was first applied to automobiles during the late 19th century. The first internal combustion engine that employed the use of cylinders was gas-fired, and was invented by the Belgian Jean Joseph Lennoir in 1860. The inventor of the automobile itself is generally acknowledged as Karl Benz who patented the world’s first automobile in 1886, driven by a four cylinder engine.</p>