Improvements in and relating to Gas and Oil Engines.
Year: 1898

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and relating to Gas and Oil Engines.
We, JOHN DONALD MACKENZIE, of 301, West Princes Street, in the County of
the City of Glasgow, and KENNETH ARTHUR MACDONALD, of Russel Place, Dollar,.
in the County of Clackmannan, Electrical Engineers, do hereby declare the nature
our invention to be as follows;.
of
;-
This invention has reference to improvements in and relating to gas and oil
engines.
According to our improvements we would have one or more working cylinders
with separate air pump and have the valves connected to some ordinary reversing
gear which will allow of reversing the engine. The cylinders would be double
acting and have an explosion at each stroke of the piston. The gas or oil vapour
and air would be either exploded instantaneously or be burnt continuously for a
definite or variable part of stroke.
The ignition would be effected by means of an electric spark passing between
platinum contacts inside the cylinder, or red hot tubes as at present used in gas and
oil engines, or spontaneous combustion by having the temperature of air raised, so
far by means of compression and the waste heat of exhaust that the temperature
of ignition is reached.
The air pump would compress air into a receiver capable of holding enough to
supply several strokes of engine. The air pump would be lagged with some
non conducting material to retain heat generated by compression and the com-
pression would be such that the temperature would be sufficient to vapourize or
ignite the oil vapour or gas. The exhaust would pass through a silencing chamber
and in said chamber pipes would be arranged through which the air supply is
drawn so as to raise its temperature still further by means of otherwise waste
heat. Or the exhaust may be led into a receiver and water sprayed on to it to
generate steam which may be used to drive the piston of an auxiliary cylinder..
The oil would be pumped from an oil reservoir direct into the cylinder.or
cylinders and an oil nozzle would be arranged at right angles to the air ports so
as to spray the oil and allow it to be more easily vapourized and mixed with air.
The gas would be pumped under pressure greater than the air pressure, into a
gas reservoir from which it would be admitted by means of mushroom valves
worked by the same valve gear as is working the air admission.
When piston valves are used for admitting the air they would be worked by
a reversing link motion and in this case separate exhaust valves would be required,
operated by cam gear and having pressure relief cocks actuated from the reversing
gear to assist in reversing. But when mushroom valves are used, both the exhaust
and admission valves would be worked simultaneously from the same valve gear.

page_text: A water jacket may be formed round cylinder if found necessary, in order to
keep the cylinder walls sufficiently cool for practical working.
Dated the 9th day of May 1898.
W. R. M. THOMSON & Co.,
96, Buchanan Street, Glasgow, Agents.
Improvements in and relating to Gas and Oil Engines.
'
We, JOHN DONALD MACKENZIE, of 301, West Princes Street, in the County of
the City of Glasgow, and KENNETH ARTHUR MACDONALD, of Russel Place, Dollar,
in the County of Clackmannan, Electrical Engineers, do hereby declare the nature
of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be par-
ticularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
This invention relates to gas and oil engines and has for its object to provide an
engine, the working parts of which are of simpler construction and less liable to
get out of order, than heretofore, and the working direction of which can be
reversed.
:
The invention is illustrated by the accompanying drawings, Fig. 1 being a
vertical section of a gas engine constructed under our invention, which with slight
modifications hereinafter set forth, would also be applicable as an oil engine,
Fig a vertical section of the same on the line, Fig. 1, and Fig. 3
a horizontal section on the line yy, Fig. 1 Fig. 4 is a diagrammatic view of a
method of reversing the engine,
In carrying out the invention, the working cylinder A or cylinders when more
than one are employed is or are closed at both ends so that the engine is double-
acting, an explosion or working impulse being provided at each stroke of the
piston B or at each revolution of the crank shaft C, the gas or oil vapour and air
being exploded instantaneously or burned continuously for a definite or variable
part of the stroke. The gas or oil constituting the working impulse is supplied
to the cylinder A under pressure greater than the air pressure by means of a
pump E connected by a pipe F to valves G at either end of the working cylinder A,
and is ignited either by means of an electric spark passing between platinum
contacts inside the cylinder, or by red hot tubes H, as shewn at Figs. 1 and 3.
Or spontaneous combustion of the gas or oil vapour within the cylinder A may be
effected by raising the temperature of the air necessary for combustion by
compression and by the waste heat of the exhaust. The air pump I is adapted
to compress air into a receiver D capable of holding sufficient air to ignite several
charges of the explosive, a relief valve being preferably provided on the plunger I'
adapted to open on the air pressure within the receiver exceeding the desired
degree. The receiver is lagged with non-conducting material to prevent radiation
of the heat generated by compression of the air and the degree of compression
being such that the temperature necessary to ignition of the gas is reached, or
the heat thus obtained may as above referred to, be further augmented by passing
it on its way to the working cylinder A through tubes A' in the silencing
Chamber A2 into which the exhaust is preferably led.
For actuating the gas admission valves G, the air admission valves K and the
exhaust valves L. two cam shafts M, N, driven by worm gearing O, P, Q, R & S,
are provided, each shaft M, N, carrying a series of cams T, U and V, and in
order to be able to reverse the direction of motion of the engine the cams are
formed upon sleeves loose upon their shafts M, N, but capable of being moved
longitudinally by means of a hand lever N', clutch N2 and forked lever N³, along

page_text: the shaft, so as to bring either the forward or backward set of cams to act
rollers attached to the valve spindles.
upon the
The engine may also be made to reverse by means of any ordinary eccentric
reversing motion as applied at present to steam engines.
In such case, as shewn at Fig. 4, the air and exhaust valve spindle would be
provided with bell crank levers of specific form; the bell crank levers being in
two parts, a constituting one portion and the other, so arranged in relation to
each other that any pressure on
in the direction shown by the arrow will be
transmitted to b, but any pressure on in the opposite direction causes the
portion to turn on its pivot in the direction of the pressure, without altering
the position of b. On the eccentric rode projections are formed which come in
contact with these bell crank levers and press against the portion a of the lever,
causing it to move say downwards until, owing to the circular travel of a, the
projection on the rode slips past it, the motion of the portion a being communi-
cated to b, and thence to valve. On the upward movement of the rod c the
projection again comes in contact with the portion of the bell crank, lifting
it without actuating the valve until once more the projection on the rode slips past
the lever a. In order to bring either of the projections on the eccentric rod into
operation, the eccentric is set in the same manner as in steam engines.
For actuating the exhaust valves a lengthened projection is formed on the
rod on the side opposite the projections c¹, so as to keep the exhaust valves open
during the full stroke of engine.
Two small projections are also provided on the rod e similar to those for the air
valves in order to actuate the oil or gas valves.
When oil is employed instead of gas for actuating the engine, the oil would be
pumped from an oil reservoir direct into the cylinder or cylinders and an oil
nozzle would be arranged at right angles to the air ports so as to spray the oil
and allow it to be more easily vapourized and mixed with air.
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 what
we claim is:-
1. The improved gas and oil engine, the parts of which are constructed, com-
bined and arranged to operate substantially as described.
2. In a gas and oil engine the means for reversing the direction of motion of
the engine, consisting of a series of cams arranged in pairs on sleeves on cam shafts
driven from the crank shaft of the engine, the sleeves being operated by hand
levers or other means in order to bring the backward or forward cam of each
pair into position to act upon the valves of the working cylinder substantially as
described.
3. In an oil and gas engine a reversing motion constructed substantially as
described and operated from the eccentric.
Dated this 9th day of February
1899
JOHN DONALD MACKENZIE,
KENNETH ARTHUR MACDONALD.