The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-12-09

in studying it. Finally he, too. became
firmly convinced that Mr.. Rohr had MADE
wonderful discovery and so informed
the gentleman WHO had paid him for
making the investigation.
The result of all this was that Mr..
Rohr and the gentleman first mentioned
entered into an agreement, and the
drawings and plans Of the engine were
filed with the patent office III Washing
ton in order to protect the invention.
Then the Portland man went to Provi-
dence, r. L., and there interested Mr.. X.
Hilton Chase in the machine and o.
tanned a promise from him to furnish the
necessar! money to perfect Mr.. Rohr's
motor. But before this could be done
Mr.. Chase lost nearly all of his property
by some unlucky speculations and was
not able to carry out his part of the
agreement and SO for a few months no
progress was made in the matter.
Mr.. Rohr then succee ded in interesting
several Of Portland's business men in the
machine and they, having also investi-
gated it, furnished the necessary morey
to build motor on q larger scale than
was the inventors model.
Plans for the machine having been
drawn by the inventor the castings forsit
were made and these were taken to
machine shop in this city where the en-
CINE of Mr. Rohr is now being put TO-
gether.
A PRESS reporter called at this ma
/, ba
and its inventor. Mr.. Rohr is very
courteous gsntlem an anu readily offered
to explain his motor to the PRESS man
and tell him all about it. The inventor
is a man little under the ordinary
height and of slight build. He wears his
hair, which is inclined to be curly, rath-
er long, and dresses when about the
shop, in workmens clothes. The most
noticeable things about the man are his
bright, restless eyes which, when fixed
upon one in conversation, seem TO look
one through and through. The machine,
as explained by Mr.. Rohr, and the man
who is building it. seemed somewhat
complicated and would he almost impos
sible to describe in detail in limited
space.
The main portion Of the engine is
heavy iron tank about 10 feet long, four
feet W ide and three or four feet high.
1t is, in fact, simply big iron box, air.
tight and capable of withstanding great
pressure. In one end Of this tank, as we
shall call it, is fitted a steel cylinder
about two and one-half feet high. the
Cylinder is 20 inches in diameter and has
Mt the bottom two air valves, one being
suction valve, opening outside the
opening into the tank. A steel
piston fits into this cylinder very
tightly and the whole forms simply an
| immense air pump which, when the pls-
| ton is moved up and down, forces the air
| into the tank in which the cylinder is
| placed. The steel rod which moves this
piston up and down in the cylinder pass
es through a tightly packed hole In the
| top of the air tank and is connected with
the crank shaft of two 1200-pound iron
| fly whesls which are supported above
the tank. On this crank shaft is also
| fixed cog wheel, something like two
| feet in diameter, the use of which will
| be shortly explained.
| Some three feet in the rear of these
more fly wheels weighing 800 pounds
each and on the shaft which supports
| them is fixed big cog wheel about five
| feet in diameter which fits into the cog
wheel already mentioned as being pla ced
OH the crank shaft to which the piston
rod of the air pump is attached. 10
| make this more plain hereafter, we will
call the air pump crank shaft ono. /"
and the second shaft supporting the 600
| yound fly wheel and the big cog " heel,
| fsNo 80
Directly in the rear of shaft No. Q is
| placed n compressed air engine wi tn
pair of 600-pound fly wheels, and the
shaft by which these are supported is
connected with shaft No. 2 by a sprocket
wheel and chain, similar TO that seen on
a bicycle, only they are much longer and
| stronger. This compressed air engine,
| or auxiliary engine, as it is called. OBJ
| tains it's power from the compressed air
| in the tank beneath it and the air in this
| tank is compressed by the air pump al
ready described
Now we have the machine complete in
a rough state. Let us see how tho inven-
| tor says it will work. 10 CONNIE nee
with, the fly wheels whichFoperate the air
pump or shaft No l, ara SGT revolving Mt
great speed by some outside energy. This
will compress the air in the air tank b y
means of the pump on the compressed air
enough of it is compressed TO run the
auxiliary engine, the outside energy, at
first used for starting the machine, is re-
moved.
| Now the compressed air in the tank
presses down " it'll great force on the
| top of the cylinder of the air pump and
this great weight forces the piston down.
ward into the air pump and this turns
the 12U0-pound fly wheels.
| But on the upward stroke the woight
| of mir on the top of this piston is just as
great, but the momentum of the big
| 12O0-pound fly Wheels the inven tor
claims, will pull this piston upwards,
even against the air pressure within the
tank, to within one-third of the distance
from the dead centre of the crank shaft.
J ugt here is where the auxiliary engine
comes into play.
| Mr.. Rohr says THAI he now turns on
the compressed air from the air tanks
and starts his auxiliary engine. This
exerts it's force by the system of sprocket
wheels ana chains. fly wheels and cogs,
before described. on the crank shaft of
the air pumps piston rod, turns the big
fly wheels around just enough to lift the
piston over the dead centre Of the crank
! shaft and then the DistOu goes down