Internal combustion engine having a main combustion chamber and an ignition chamber associated therewith provided with an ignition device

An internal combustion engine having a main combustion chamber and cooling means comprising, in combination, an ignition chamber having a cylindrical wall and at least one transfer channel for communicating said ignition chamber with said main combustion chamber, said ignition chamber comprising a closed end circular cylinder having a cylindrical lowered portion of said wall projecting into said main combustion chamber, said at least one transfer channel extending substantially radial to the axis of said cylinder and tangential to the circumference of said cylinder, an ignition device having a first electrode which ignites toward said cylindrical wall of said ignition chamber, an annular thermal pipe for separating said cylindrical wall at least partially from said cooling means of the internal combustion engine so that the wall temperature can be controlled by means of the heat conduction capacity of said thermal pipe which is variable in accordance with temperature, said ignition device having an electrode assembly for supplying the ignition voltage and isolated with respect to ground, said ignition device electrode assembly comprising a plurality of electrode elements arranged in series and separated from each other to form at least first and second spark gaps and being adapted to be electrically connected to a source of ignition voltage, a counter electrode formed by a surface of said ignition chamber cylindrical wall at a level just above said transfer channel one of said plurality of electrode elements being arranged to form a last ignition location along said cylindrical wall between a spark gap formed by said one electrode and said counter electrode.