An Improved Oil or Gas Engine.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 16th Feb., 1892
Complete Specification Left, 16th Nov., 1892-Accepted, 17th Dec., 1892
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Oil or Gas Engine.
I, ALFRED JOSEPH INSTONE, of 2, Edward Street, Aldershot, in the County
of Hants., Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
My invention relates to an improved oil or gas engine and consists in an engine
of this description having a single-acting piston coupled directly to the crank and
working in a vibrating cylinder mounted to work on a spherical or trunnion joint
which acts also as the valve governing the exhaust and determining the direction of
running of the engine.
In combination therewith I employ a casing enclosing the said working parts
provided with an air inlet valve and acting as a vessel in which a charge of air is
compressed by the piston at each outward stroke and from which the said charge is
delivered to the mixing chamber for supporting the combustion of the vaporized
oil or gas admitted or supplied to the mixing chamber by the means hereafter
referred to.
The joint on which the cylinder oscillates if spherical is in the form of a frustum
of a sphere and may be formed on a water jacket around the cylinder. It works in
a corresponding spherical socket formed on the casing by which the thrust of the
cylinder is resisted, both the male and female parts of the spherical joint being
formed with passages through which a circulation of water is maintained. Or the
joint may be formed by a transverse cylindrical trunnion piece on the cylinder or
water jacket secured in its socket by a cap making an air-tight joint. An exhaust
port leads from the side of the cylinder and opens at the spherical or cylindrical
surface of the male part of the joint and is caused by the oscillation of the said
spherical or trunnion joint in its socket to communicate at proper times with a port
in the said socket, leading to the exhaust. The position of this port is capable of
being reversed with regard to the angular position of the cylinder (such reversal
being effected by the shifting therein of a filling piece moved by a screw or lever
adjustment) so that the phase in the oscillation of the engine when the exhaust
occurs and consequently the direction of running of the engine will be thereby
determined.
In the case of an oil engine, the oil supply mechanism consists of a piston valve
working in a cylinder mounted on and oscillating with the main cylinder so as to be
actuated in one direction by contact with an abutment and in the other by a spring
said valve having a port forming an oil charge chamber adapted to coincide first
with an oil supply pipe so as to be charged with oil therefrom and then with an
air pipe communicating with the inner end of the valve cylinder wherein air drawn
in during the previous return stroke of the valve is first compressed and then
suddenly released on the oil charge coinciding with the air port and with the
passage leading to the mixing chamber whereby the air is caused to inject the
charge of oil into the said mixing chamber. This valve is also adapted to act as a
governor, by its piston compressing air during the return stroke in the other end
of the cylinder, which is provided with a regulatable relief orifice. The mixing
chamber is at the rear end of the cylinder, and the oil thus injected becomes
vaporized therein by the heat of the surrounding walls, the combustible mixture
passing into the cylinder through a check valve.
Dated thin 19th dow of Rohmeru 1892.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
An Improved Oil or Gas Engine.
'
I, ALFRED JOSEPH INSTONE, of 2 Edward Street, Aldershot in the County
of Hants., Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement :-
My invention relates to an improved gas or oil engine having an oscillating
cylinder working on a trunnion joint which acts as the valve governing the release
to the exhaust and having a mixing chamber into which an explosive. charge is
pumped by each inward stroke of the piston and wherein said charge is compressed.
by the outward stroke of the piston sufficiently to enable it to displace the
residual gases of the previous explosion and expel them from the cylinder to which
the explosive charge is delivered whilst the exhaust is open. The piston on its
inward stroke also completes the expulsion of the residual gases from the cylinder.
and then compresses the explosive charge which is fired on completion of said stroke,
the cycle being such as to give an impulse every revolution.
Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this
Specification, in which
Figure 1 is a vertical section of the engine, the piston being at its highest point,
and Figure 2 is a half outside elevation (in section on line 1-1) and a half vertical-
section, the piston being at its lowest point.
The same letters of reference denote like parts in all the figures.
A is the piston coupled directly to the crank shaft B and working in a cylinder C
oscillating on a pair of trunnions D, D¹. The crank is enclosed by a casing E to
which the outer end of the cylinder opens and which serves as a pumping and
mixing chamber for the explosive gases inhaled through air and gas valves F, G,
at each inward or return stroke of the piston and which are compressed in said
chamber Ę at each outward stroke of the piston. The pistou A has a longitudinal
passage a opening through a port a¹ at the side of the piston and communicating
when the piston is at the end of its outward stroke with a port d leading to a
chamber within the cylinder trunnion D¹ whence a passage d' leads longitudinally
through the cylinder to the inner end thereof. A port situated at a point in the
side of the cylinder such that it is covered by the piston for about 4ths of its
stroke leads from the cylinder to a chamber H in the other cylinder trunnion D
whence a port h¹ opens through the cylindrical surface of said trunnion and.
communicates at proper times with a corresponding porti in the bearing I wherein
said trunnion is mounted, the coincidence, or otherwise, of the ports h¹ and i being
governed by the oscillation of the trunnion in its bearing. The trunnion bearings I I
are supported by a casing enclosing a chamber K within which the cylinder oscillates
and into which water is run to keep the cylinder cool.
In order to make an air tight joint between the cylinder and the mixing
chamber E, the trunnions are of a greater diameter than the external-diameter of
the cylinder, so that the trunnions extend entirely across the cylinder as one
cylindrical joint against which bear packing strips L fitted in grooves between the..
two parts of the casing and pressed up by springs behind them. The firing of the
compressed charge in the cylinder is effected by an ignition tube M leading from a
port m in the trunnion bearing 1' with which a port m' in the trunnion D' coincides
when the piston reaches the end of its inward stroke, said port m¹ being in direct
communication with the cylinder through chamber and passage d². The ignition
tube is closed at its outer end and is heated by a gas or oil, flame, according as the

page_text: engine is used as a gas or oil engine. When used as a gas engine, the gas supply
pipe will be connected to the gas inlet g, and when used as an oil engine the oil
will be pumped by any suitable pump into the chamber N of the one or other
trunnion (or both of them) where it will be evaporated by the heat of previous
explosions transmitted through the walls of the cylinder, the oil vapors being
conveyed to the gas inlet g. by a pipe leading through the cover plate of the
trunnion bearing which makes a tight joint with the end of the trunnion and closes
the outer end of chamber N.
The engine as herein described and illustrated will run in the reverse, direction
to that indicated but will then work less efficiently, as owing to the relative position
of ports h¹ and i to one another and to the angle of oscillation of the cylinder when
the engine is running in the reverse direction, the release will occur when the port h
is uncovered by the piston on its outward stroke whilst the compression will
commence at the beginning of the inward stroke of the piston. By duplicating the
exhaust ports h' and i in the same trunnions and arranging them symmetrically
with the first set at the opposite side of the vertical axis of the engine, the engine
will run with equal efficiency in either direction provided that the one set of
trunnion ports is shut off when the other set is in use and vice versa.
In the engine as herein represented, the uncovering of port his followed by the
opening of ports h', i, and upon the piston completing its outstroke ports a¹ and d
coincide and allow part of the explosive mixture (compressed in the chamber E by
the piston during its outward stroke) to pass to the inner end of the cylinder and
so displace the residual gases therein which continue to be expelled through the
exhaust ports until the piston in making its inward or return stroke covers port h.
At this moment compression of the explosive charge in the cylinder begins (the
communication between a¹ and d having been just previously cut-off) and the
compression is continued until the piston reaches the inner end of its stroke at
which moment the port m¹ coincides with port m whereupon the charge is fired.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is-
1. A gas or oil engine having an oscillating cylinder, a closed chamber into
which the explosive mixture is pumped and compressed by the piston, and ports in
the piston and cylinder putting said chamber in communication with the cylinder
when the exhaust is opened, so that the slightly compressed mixture will displace
the residual gases in the cylinder, substantially as specified.
2. A gas or oil engine having an oscillating cylinder, a closed chamber into
which the explosive mixture is pumped and compressed by the piston, ports in the
piston and cylinder putting said chamber in communication with the cylinder when
the exhaust is opened, and a port in the side of the cylinder controlled by the piston
and leading to exhaust ports in the trunnion and its bearing whose coincidence is
dependent on the oscillation of the cylinder and determines the moment of release
whilst the piston and cylinder port determine the moment of compression,
substantially as specified.
3. An oil or gas engine having an oscillating cylinder, a closed chamber into
which the explosive mixture is pumped and compressed by the piston, ports by
which the communications of the cylinder with said chamber and with the exhaust
are controlled by the longitudinal motion of the piston and the oscillating motion
of the cylinder as described, and in which the communication of the cylinder with
the ignition tube is also controlled by the angular motion of the cylinder trunnion,
substantially as specified.
4. The herein described gas engine having an oscillating cylinder, a closed crank
chamber in which the explosive mixture is pumped and compressed and ports
controlled by the piston determining the communication of the crank chamber with
the cylinder, ports in the cylinder and trunnion determining the communication
of the cylinder with the exhaust, and a port in the trunnion determining the

page_text: communication of the cylinder with the ignition tube, substantially
specified.
Dated this 16th day of November 1892.
as herein
A. J. INSTONE,
By A. M. & Wm. Clark,
53, Chancery Lane, London, Chartered Patent Agents.