Improvements in Gas Engines.
Year: 1890

page_text: Date of Application, 25th Aug., 1890
Complete Specification Left, 25th May, 1891-Accepted, 27th June, 1891
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Gas Engines.
We WILLIAM OVENS and THOMAS CHARLES OVENS of No. 54 St. John
Street Clerkenwell in the County of Middlesex Engineers do hereby declare the
nature of this invention to be as follows:-
:-
Our invention consists of the improvements hereinafter described in gas engines.
In order to facilitate access to the working parts of the engines we arrange
the firing light and the admission and exhaust valves at one and the same side
of the cylinder. We provide for actuation of the said valves thus arranged
by means of rods or levers or other mechanism to which motion is communicated
as required from the crank shaft through a cam or cams carried thereby or
through a cam or cams or crank or crank plate geared to the crank shaft or
partly through a cam or cams carried by or geared to the crank shaft and partly
through a crank or crank plate geared to the said shaft. Where we provide for
actuation of the valve mechanism by means of a cam or cams carried by the
crank shaft we form the said cam or cams and arrange the said mechanism so
that the valves will be opened at every alternate revolution of the said shaft.
Where we provide for actuation of the said mechanism by means of a crank plate
geared to the crank shaft we in some cases provide for adjustment of the extent
of throw of the crank by securing the crank pin to a slide so mounted in or on
the crank plate as to admit of variation of position of the crank pin.
•
For the purpose of cooling the part or parts in which the inlet and exhaust
passages are formed we form a chamber or chambers in the said part or parts
and provide for circulation of water through the said chamber or chambers either
by connecting it or them with the water jacket of the cylinder or otherwise.
For the purpose of ensuring of the engine while working we prefer to make
the cylinder and base thereof in one casting and in the case of vertical engines
we, prefer to make the base of a form approximating to that of a cup or bowl
inverted.
In order to economize labour in the construction of the engine and to provide
for ready variation or adjustment of the capacity of the part of the engine in
which the mixture of gas.and air is fired we close the end of the cylinder by
screwing into it one end of a barrel of wrought iron or other suitable metal and
closing the other end of the said barrel by means of a screw cap or plug. The
said barrel thus closed at one end constitutes a box or chamber communicating
with the interior of the cylinder with which box or chamber the firing tube may
be connected.
By removing the said metal barrel and substituting a longer or shorter one
the capacity of the part of the engine in which the inflammable mixture is fired
may be readily increased or decreased.
Dated this 25th day of August 1890.
W. T. WHITEMAN,
Agent for the Applicants.

page_text: Improvements in Gas Engines.
We WILLIAM OVENS and THOMAS CHARLES OVENS of No. 54 St. John
Street Clerkenwell in the County of Middlesex Engineers 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 :-
Our invention consists of the improvements hereinafter described in gas engines.
In order to facilitate access to the working parts of the engines we arrange the
firing light and the admission and exhaust valves at one and the same side of the
cylinder. We provide for actuation of the said valves thus arranged by means of
rods or levers or other mechanism to which motion is communicated as required
from the crank shaft.
For the purpose of cooling the part or parts in which the inlet and exhaust
passages are formed we form a chamber or chambers in the said part or parts and
provide for circulation of water through the said chamber or chambers either by
connecting it or them with the water jacket of the cylinder or otherwise.
For the purpose of ensuring steadiness of the engine while working we prefer to
make the cylinder and base thereof in one casting and in the case of vertical
engines we prefer to make the base of a form approximating to that of a cup or
bowl inverted.
In order to provide for ready variation or adjustment of the capacity of the part
of the engine in which the mixture of gas and air is fired and thus economize labour
in the construction of the engine we close the end of the cylinder by screwing into
it one end of a barrel of wrought iron or other suitable metal and closing the other
end of the said barrel by means of a screw cap or plug. The said barrel thus
closed at one end constitutes a box or chamber communicating with the interior of
the cylinder the capacity of which may be readily increased or decreased by
removing the said metal barrel and substituting a longer or shorter one.
Figures 1 and 2 of the accompanying drawings are elevations taken at right
angles to each other of a vertical gas engine to which our improvements are applied
the casting in which the cylinder is formed being shown partly in section in the
said Figure 2. The other figures of the drawings represent details of the engine
hereinafter described.
a is the cylinder which is formed in one casting with the water jacket b thereof
and the base c and the standards & d' which support the crank shaft e. f is the
piston g the piston rod h the fly wheel and i the band pulley. 61 62 are pipes which
respectively convey water to and from the water jacket b. j k l are castings con-
stituting the valve boxes which parts j k l are formed and secured together and to
the body of the engine and have passages formed in them communicating with the
cylinder and the water jacket thereof as hereinafter described with reference to
Figures 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 in which figures the construction of the said parts
is fully illustrated. is the tube communicating with the firing burner 2.
the pipe by which gas is applied to the said burner. m is the spindle of the air
valve. n is the spindle of the gas valve and o is the spindle of the exhaust valve
the said valves being opened by inward motion of the said spindles effected at the
required times by mechanism actuated by the rotation of the crank shaft e which
mechanism we will now describe.
is
Keyed to the crank shaft e is a pinion p which gears with a toothed wheel 9
working on a pin 7 secured to the standard d' the said pinion and toothed wheel
being of such relative sizes that the wheel q is caused to rotate once by two
rotations of the crank shaft. Secured to the boss of the wheel q is an excentric s
the strap q of which excentric is jointed a bent levert working on a fixed pin t
secured to the standard d'. The said eccentric and strap and the part of the
wheel to which the excentric is secured are shown separately in Figure 11.

page_text: Jointed to the bend of the lever t is a rod u the lower end of which rod is jointed
to an arm or crank u keyed to a rocking shaft w working in bearings w¹ w₁ secured
to the base c of the engine.
x is an arm secured to the said shaft w below the
air valve spindle m and a¹ is another arm secured to the said shaft below the gas
valve spindle n.
Secured to the outer face of the toothed wheel q is a cam y in
the path of which is a roller z mounted on the upper end of a rod 2 which rests
on the top of the exhaust valve spindle o and is capable of vertical sliding
motion in a socket 2 formed on a bracket 23 secured to the body of the engine.
By means of this mechanism the air and gas passages and the exhaust passage
are opened at the required times once during every two rotations of the crank
shaft the action of the said mechanism being as follows:-
*
During a portion of the rotation of the wheel 7 the upper end of the lever t
is pushed outward by the excentric s whereby the bent part of the said lever and
the rod u connected thereto are depressed and the shaft w partially turned in its
bearings and the arms ca¹ which are secured to the said shaft are raised and the
rods m n above the said arms and the air and gas valves carried by the said rods
are also raised. During a further portion of the rotation of the said wheel q
reverse motions of the said parts tua and ¹ are produced by the said excentric s
when the valve rods m n are forced downward by the springs m * and the air
and gas valves thereby again pressed to their seatings. During a further portion
of the rotation of the said wheel q the acting part of the cam y depresses the
rod 2' and the spindle o of the exhaust valve thus forcing the said valve away
from its seating and opening the exhaust outlet. After the acting part of the
cam y has passed the roller z the spring o* raises the spindle o until the exhaust
valve is pressed to its seating and also restores the rod to the position shown in
Figures 1 and 2.
We will now describe the construction of the valve boxes j k l.
Figures 3 and 4 are elevations of the said boxes corresponding to those shown in
the elevations of the complete engine (Figures 1 and 2) but drawn to a larger
scale.
Figure 5 is an elevation of the back of the said boxes namely the part which in
the said Figures 1 and 2 is towards the engine.
Figure 6 is a plan of the said boxes.
Figure 7 is a vertical section taken on the line 1 Figure 3.
Figure 8 is a vertical section taken on the line 2 Figure 4.
Figures 9 and 10 are horizontal sections taken respectively on the lines 3 and 4
Figure 3.
m is the air valve; m² is the passage by which air enters and m³ is a valve
mounted therein and connected to a lever m³ by variation of the position of which
valve the amount of air entering may be regulated as required. n is the gas
valve n² is the gas supply pipe and n³ is a passage by which the gas is conducted to
a chamber k in which it mingles with the air passing the valve m². o¹ is the exhaust
valve and o² is the exhaust outlet. k is a passage communicating with the firing
tube and with the chamber k. 4 is the passage by which the mixture of gas
and air passes to the cylinder. kare chambers into which water from the water
jacket 6 of the engine enters by an orifice shown in Figures 5 and 10. is a
pipe by which the said water returns to the said water jacket. The parts j and k
are connected by screws ³ ³ and the part is connected to the part k by screws l'.
The three parts j k l connected as shown in Figures 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 are
secured to the body of the engine in the position shown in Figures 1 and 2 by
screws passing through holes 10. When thus secured the mouth of the
passage coincides with that of the passage leading to the cylinder a which
passage is marked as in Figure 2 and the orifice coincides with the mouth
of a passage leading to the water jacket 6 which passage is not shown in the
drawings.
The mechanism for actuating the valves which mechanism is herein before
described with reference to Figures 1 and 2 is arranged so that when the piston is

page_text: in the position shown in Figure 2 the air and gas valves and the exhaust valve are
all closed and so that during two rotations of the crank shaft in the direction
indicated by the arrow in Figure 1 the following actions take place. As the piston
first rises the air valve m' and the gas valve n¹ are simultaneously opened and gas
and air in admixture pass into the cylinder. Before the piston reaches its highest
point the said valves are closed by the action of the springs m* m* Figures 1
and 2. During the return of the piston the mixture is compressed in the cylinder
and a portion thereof is forced into the firing tube k' whereby the mixture in the
cylinder is ignited when the piston begins to rise again. On the piston again
descending the exhaust valve o¹ is opened and remains open until the piston again
reaches or nearly reaches its lowest point when the said valve is again closed by the
action of the spring o* Figures 1 and 2. The continued motion of the piston
causes continuous repetition of the series of actions hereinbefore described a charge
of explosive mixture being fired in the cylinder during each alternate upward
motion of the piston.
The arrangement hereinbefore described for admitting of ready variation of the
capacity of the part of the engine in which the mixture of gas and air is fired is
illustrated in Figure 2 of the accompanying drawings a¹ being the tube screwed
onto the end of the cylinder a and communicating therewith and a² the plug closing
the outer end of the said tube. If it be found necessary to increase or decrease
the capacity of the said part of the engine the tube a' is removed and replaced by
a longer or shorter one.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that we
claim as our said invention of "Improvements in Gas Engines":
:-
First The arrangement of the firing light and the admission and exhaust valves
on one and the same side of the engine substantially as hereinbefore described and
illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
:--
Secondly The means hereinbefore described for cooling the valve boxes that
is to say the construction therein of a chamber or chambers or a passage or passages
and the connection of the same with a water supply in such a manner that water
is caused to flow through it or them.
Thirdly-The arrangement hereinbefore described and illustrated in Figure 2 of
the accompanying drawings for admitting of ready increase or decrease of the
capacity of the part of the engine in which the mixture of gas and air is fired
that is to say the connection with the said part of a readily removable box or
chamber.
Fourthly The general combination and arrangement of parts constituting the
engine illustrated in Figures 1 and 2 of the accompanying drawings.
Dated the 25th day of May 1891.
W. T. WHITEMAN,
Agent for the Applicants.