IMPROVE- MENTS IN GAS MOTOR ENGINES
Year: 1882

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Francis William Crossley at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 20th September 1882.
FRANCIS WILLIAM CROSSLEY of the City of Manchester Engineer IMPROVE-
MENTS IN GAS MOTOR ENGINES”
66
My invention relates to means of igniting the combustible charge of a gas motor
engine these means being applicable whether the charge is or is not compressed
before ignition. For this purpose I keep heated by an external flame the middle
part of a bent U tube which may be of platinum or other metal not readily
oxidisable. This tube opens at both its ends into two compartments formed in the
passage by which the combustible charge enters the cylinder of the engine or in a
part of the cylinder where the gaseous mixture is such as can be readily ignited.
One of these compartments is open to the cylinder and the other or inner com-
partment communicates with it by a hole in the partition which separates the
compartments. A small plunger worked by the engine passes through packing in
the side of the first compartment and through the hole of the partition, the
movement of this plunger being so timed as to make its instroke at the moment of
ignition. The operation of the apparatus is as follows. Usually the hot part of
the bent tube is occupied by incombustible products of previous combustion, and
remains so occupied when the two compartments into which it opens are charged
with combustible gaseous mixture, but when the plunger makes its instroke passing
through the hole in the partition, it causes a portion of the combustible mixture
contained in the inner compartment to pass through the tube by the heat of which
it is ignited.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Francis William Crossley in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
19th March 1883.
FRANCIS WILLIAM CROSSLEY of the City of Manchester Engineer
MENTS IN GAS MOTOR ENGINES
"
"IMPROVE
My invention relates to means of igniting the combustible charge of a gas motor
engine, these means being applicable whether the charge is or is not compressed
before ignition. For this purpose, I keep heated, by an external flame, the middle
part of a bent U tube, which may be of platinum or other metal not readily
oxidisable. This tube opens at both its ends into two compartments formed in the
passage by which the combustible charge enters the cylinder of the engine or in a
part of the cylinder where the gaseous mixture is such as can be readily ignited.
One of these compartments is open to the cylinder and the other or inner com-
partment communicates with it by a hole in the partition which separates the
compartments. A small plunger worked by the engine passes through packing in
the side of the first compartment and through the hole of the partition, the move-
ment of this plunger being so timed as to make part of its instroke at the moment
of ignition. The operation of the apparatus is as follows;-Usually the hot part of
the bent tube is occupied by incombustible products of previous combustion, and
remains so occupied when the two compartments into which it opens are charged
with combustible gaseous mixture, but when the plunger makes its instroke, passing
through the hole in the partition, it causes a portion of the combustible mixture
contained in the inner compartment to pass through the tube, by the heat of which
it is ignited.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Fig. 1 is an end view, Fig. 2 is a side elevation and Fig. 3 a sectional plan of
igniting apparatus according to my invention applied at the end of the cylinder of
a gas motor engine. A is part of the cylinder with its water casing B and
passage C for admission of the combustible gaseous charge. This charge supplied
by the pipe D passes the spring check valve E to a cavity in which there is a
partition having through it a hole F fitting a plunger G. This plunger, caused to
reciprocate by a crank, works through packing at the side of the cavity, passing,
at each forward stroke, through the hole F. The cavity at each side of the
partition communicates with the mouths K and L of the bent U tube M, which
extends upwards within a chimney N, and is kept heated by a Bunsen burner O.
When the cylinder has received its charge of gaseous combustible mixture, which
may be in a state of compression; the valve E is closed and the cavity from E to C
is also charged with the combustible mixture; the plunger G then makes its
instroke, and when its end passes the hole F, it forces part of the mixture contained
between E and F into the tube M by the mouth K, and this, in passing through
the heated part of the tube, becomes ignited, and, issuing in flame at L, commu-
nicates ignition to the charge in the cylinder. During the retreat of the plunger G,
and until its next instroke, the tube M contains in its hot part incombustible
products of combustion, which remain inert until they are displaced at the next
instroke of G. For engines in which there is compression of the gaseous mixture,
the U tube should have its hot part so far from its mouths that this part is not
reached by the mixture forced into both mouths by the compression.
The arrangement of the U tube, the cavity and the plunger may be modified, as
shewn in Figs. 4 and 5, Fig 4 being a sectional plan and Fig. 5 a vertical section of

page_text: the modified igniting apparatus. In this case the mouths K and L of the U tube M
are situated at opposite sides of a part of the cavity which fits the plunger G, and
the plunger is made with a notch P at its one side, and a passage Q at its other side
opening at the end of the plunger. As the plunger G makes its instroke, and is
passing the part F, a portion of the combustible mixture between the end of the
plunger and the valve E is caused to pass through Q into the mouth K of the
heated tube, and through the tube, whence it issues in flame by the mouth L and
the notch P, which, at that moment, is in communication with C.
Having thus described the nature of my invention and in what manner the same
is to be performed, I hereby declare that I make no general claim to the use of an
externally heated tube as means of igniting the combustible charge of a gas motor
engine, but I claim, for the purpose of igniting such charge,
An externally heated U tube communicating by both its mouths with the space
containing the combustible gaseous mixture, in combination with a reciprocating
plunger, so arranged and moved that, at the desired moment of ignition, it causes
a portion of the inixture to flow through the heated tube, substantially as herein
described.
In Witness whereof I the said Francis William Crossley have hereunto set my
hand and seal this Seventeenth day of March in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eighty-three.
F. W. CROSSLEY (L.S.)