The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1910-05-29
TWO CYCLE ENGINE
IS IDEAL MOTOR
Why Engineers Are Unable to
Build Autos lust as
They Like.
By DIR. CHARLES W. SNYDER.

The clearance space, or, more prop
erly, the combustion chamber, meaning
that space remaining in the cylinder
when the piston is at its highest point,
theoretically should be a sphere, be-
cause the sphere OF any given capacity
has the smallest surface possible
The gas engine being a heat engine,
it is most desirable that the heat caus-
ing the expansion of the gas be re-
tanned as much as possible, and the less
radiating surface there is in contact
with the gas at the time of ignition the
greater the temperature developed and
the more efficient the motor.
This spherical shape of the combus-
ton chamber would be a difficult me
chanical construction to secure, but
notifications are in general use
The tWO-cycle engine, having no
valves in the cylinder head, is often
built, with the cylinders having heml-
spherical dome, and the piston with a
flat head, a near approach to the ideal
condition.
The four-cycIe engine with the valves
in the cylinder head also is good de-
sign, and all other things considered, II
will give more satisfactory results than
the 7 or L head motor, for the simple
reason that the area of castiron sur
rounding the burning charge is nearly
the minimum me surface SurLou oIos
ing the charge in the T or l. headed
cylinder is about twice as great as IN
a motor with overhead valves, which
means twice the radiation.
The automobile engineer very rarely
ever builds the best he knows how
He is always up against the CONNER
| cial problem, and this is governed to a
marked extent by price, appearance
and custom.
Where Engine Ought to Be.
If a man designed the most perfect
| mechanically machine possible, at a
| high cost, which did not have good
! appearance, and was built in a manner
| the peopIe were not accustomed to see,
| how many of them would he sell? For
| instance, the engine at the front or the
car under the hood is poor mechanics
| but if a car came out with the engine
over the rear axle, no hood, and the
driver sitting between the front wheels
| though you knew 1t was s. perfect de-
sign, how many of you would buy it?
And this is the way with the auto
mobile engine the designer starts on
his car The public demands an en-
CINE under the hood. He must make 9
motor that can be placed there, DC
handy and fairly accessible. To have
| the public buy his car he mus Tx 9
| given price say $4,000. Now only q
| portion of the $4,000 can be allowed FOL
the engine, perhaps $500; and it's up &c
this automobile engineer 70 produce ar
engine of a given size, to go into
| given space, at a given price, and with
these and several other minor consid-
erations In view he designs the bes1
he can
Two-Cyele Engine Best.
AS before stated. the two-cycle en-
| CINE lends itself to the most SatiSfac-
| tory form of combustion chamber; il
fact, the two-cycle engine, If well de
signed and well constructed. is the idea
motor The only objections to those IL
use at the present time are that they
are a constant compression engine, and
therefore do not throttle as readily "a
the four-cycle, and there is Away.
some loss of the charge, which /:
sucked out" by the Inertia of the ex
haust But this latter defect is nearly
overcome in the best designs as fol
instance in the American Simplex (nov
the "Amplex")- With these manufac
turers the cost of the engine Is but lit
| tie considered, and the result is a near
w perfect motor from the mechanics
u standpoint
The Franklin people have been con
. sfstent advocates of the overhead
valve and the most satisfactory per
! fornances of their cs-rs speak TO
themselves. This arrangement ha
been taken up by several other plant
during the last few years. some show
| ing designs with both valves In TIL
| cylinder head while others place onl.
one valve above. and the other In
pocket. The objections to this over
head method of construction are tina
it requires two valve cages, two rock
| er arms two fsushrOds with the neces
{ sary brackets. screens. ETC., for eacl
cylinder And that after ccasidera bl
wear the engine becomes noisy Thi
noise. however. can be and is stoppe'