In the early nineteen twenties, car makers were looking for a solution to engine knocks.

在二十世纪二十年代早期，汽车厂商试图解决发动机爆燃的问题。

When the energy can’t be used to push out the piston, it rattles the sides of the chamber to create a knocking or pinging sound, in what’s fittingly known as " engine knock."

当能量不能用于推出活塞时，它会使腔室的侧面发出嘎嘎声， 产生敲击声或砰砰声， 这就是所谓的“发动机爆震” 。

In 1921, while working for the General Motors Research Corporation in Dayton, Ohio, he investigated a compound called tetraethyl lead (also known, confusingly, as lead tetraethyl), and discovered that it significantly reduced the juddering condition known as engine knock.

1921年，他在位于俄亥俄州代顿的通用汽车研究公司工作期间，对一种名叫四乙铅的化合物作了研究，发现它能大大减少震动现象，即所谓的发动机爆震。