El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1918-03-23


the cylinders. In these sleeves ports
I are cut and as the sleeves slides up
and down. the ports register with fhe
| manifOlds and the cylinder. These
l sliding sleeves are operated BY rods
/ from an eccentric shaft, correspond
} Ing to the camshaft which operates
| the poppet valves. The really OUT
/ standing advantage OF this construc-
I ton is its Quietness in operation. The
/ sleeves sliding up and down make
I comparatively speaking. no noise at
I all. Another advantage Is the free
dom from carbOnization troubles; the
/ formation Of carbon has no bad ef-
feet on this design In the early de-
signs great trouble with fabrication
was encountered, but that has all
been overcome. One drawback OF the
type is It's inacessibility in case any
thing goes wrong, necessitatinE dis
mantling to get at the interior.
Steam, which enjoyed a period OF
positive prominence, has fallen from
that high estate, but still retains two
adherents In the Stanley and DOble
steamers. This prOpulsive medium Is
unequaled for flexibiity, quietness or
operation and gives adequate power
and speed. In its present eXponants
the factor OF economy ut uses kero-
sene), is a notable talking point and
the old trouble OF frequent water re-
Punishment has been Obviated- In
fact there seems to be a well defined
opinion that steam Is about to under
Having disposed OF the living. we
shall now hold a brief post norton on
types that have passed. Most import
ant is the rotary valve engine. which
uses BY way Of valves long bars OF
steel or iron, revolving in the
cylinder head. These bars have ports
cut In them and proper registration
with manifolds and combustion
chamber, to insure entrance and emil
sion Of the fuel Many engineers be- /
lev5 that the rotary valve is destined
70 a return In the not distant future.
In the revolving cylinder engine
the cylinders reVOlve as a unit IN
this type the craukshaft Is station !
airy and the cylinders rsvOlve about
it as a centeE The Gnome airplane
engine Is perhaps the most note
worthy revolving cylinder engine, but
its greatest inherent fault Is due TO
the fact that 10 is prodigious oil and Z
gasoline consumer, and is noisy. |
Through revolving cylinder engines
have been tried for automobiles, not |
ably In car marketed some years ]
ago as the Adams-Farewell the dis
advantages as to size. fuel efficiency,
cost, etc, make Il entirely unworthy I
OF the name automobile engine.
The final type which we shall con- |
slider is the piston valve engine,
which has never actually been used IN /
passenger car construction, though /
many designs have been placed on ]
the market. In this type small pls- 1
tons are used 10 control the intake !
and exhaust ports. These pistons I
move up and down IN their individual /
cylinde- s. just as the ordinary pistons /
do. While its adherents have claimed [
that the piston valve tended toward /
simplicity their claims are scarcely /
borne out In practice. Engines OF this /
type are bulky, the Internal resist /
ance is increased, lubrica ton Is COM
plicated and the valve gearing Is also /
complicated, with the additional dis /
advantage that Il Is hard to get a., /
and difficult 20 repair.
To sum Up. there IS no present ]
probability OF the poppet valve, water 4
cooled engine, being displaced as the /
leader IN the field. Il Is not the ideal i
power plant, bot Tor a given expen-
diture Il offers the most Like every
thing In the engineering field, II fs /
simply compromise, and e VIII con-
tinue TO prevail until some other
compromise that embodles more OF
the desired factors comes along TO ]
replace It