Gas and Oil Engines
SIMPLY EXPLAINED

An Elementary Instruction Book for Amateurs
and Engine Attendants

BY
WALTER C. RUNCIMAN


FULLY ILLUSTRATED

LONDON

Model Engineer Series. The "Model Engineer"
Series, no. 26.

1905

CONTENTS

PREFACE

My object in placing this handbook before the reader is to provide him with a simple and straightforward explanation of how and why a gas engine, or an oil engine, works. The main features and peculiarities in the construction of these engines are described, while the methods and precautions necessary to arrive at desirable results are detailed as fully as the limited space permits. I have aimed at supplying just that information which my experience shows is most needed by the user and by the amateur builder of small power engines. In place of giving a mere list of common engine troubles and their remedies, I have thought it better to endeavour to explain thoroughly the fundamental principles and essentials of good running, so that should any difficulty arise, the engine attendant will be able to reason out for himself the cause of the trouble, and will thus know the proper remedy to apply. This will give him a command over his engine which should render him equal to any emergency.

WALTER C. RUNCIMAN.

London, E.C.

GAS AND OIL ENGINES
SIMPLY EXPLAINED

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY

The history of the gas engine goes back a long way, and the history of the internal combustion engine proper further still. It will be interesting to recount the main points in the history of the development of the class of engine we shall deal with in the following pages, in order to show what huge strides were made soon after the correct and most workable theory had been formulated.

In 1678 Abbé Hautefeuille explained how a machine could be constructed to work with gunpowder as fuel. His arrangement was to explode the gunpowder in a closed vessel provided with valves, and cool the products of combustion, and so cause a partial vacuum to be formed. By the aid of such a machine, water could be raised. This inventor, however, does not seem to have carried out any experiments.

In 1685 Huyghens designed another powder machine; and Papin, in 1688, described a similar machine, which was provided with regular valves, as devised by himself, in the Proceedings of the Leipsic Academy, 1688. From this time until 1791, when John Barber took out a patent for the production of force by the combustion of hydrocarbon in air, practically no advancement was made. The latter patent, curiously enough, comprised a very primitive form of rotary engine. Barber proposed to turn coal, oil, or other combustible stuff into gas by means of external firing, and then to mix the gases so produced with air in a vessel called the exploder. This mixture was then ignited as it issued from the vessel, and the ensuing flash caused a paddle-wheel to rotate. Mention is also made that it was an object to inject a little water into the exploder, in order to strengthen the force of the flash.

Robert Street's patent of 1794 mentions a piston engine, in the cylinder of which, coal tar, spirit, or turpentine was vaporised, the gases being ignited by a light burning outside the cylinder. The piston in this engine was thrown upwards, this in turn forcing a pump piston down which did work in raising water. This was the first real gas engine, though it was crude and very imperfectly arranged.

In 1801 Franzose Lebon described a machine to be driven by means of coal-gas. Two pumps were used to compress air and gas, and the mixture was fired, as recommended by the inventor, by an electric spark, and drove a piston in a double-working cylinder.

The atmospheric engine of Samuel Brown, 1823, had a piston working in a cylinder into which gas was introduced, and the latter, being ignited, expanded the air in cylinder whilst burning like a flame. The fly-wheel carried the piston up to the top of its stroke, then water was used to cool the burnt gases, which also escaped through valves, the latter closing when the piston had reached the top of its stroke. A partial vacuum was formed, and the atmospheric pressure did work on the piston on its down stroke. A number of cylinders were required in this engine, three being shown in the specification all connected to the same crank-shaft. According to the Mechanic's Magazine, such an engine with a complete gas generating plant was fitted to a boat which ran as an experiment upon the Thames.

A two-cylinder engine working on to a beam was built in Paris, but no useful results were obtained.

Wright's engine of 1833 used a mixture of combustible gas and air, which