IMPROVED IGNITING VAIE FOR GAS ENGINES
Year: 1884

page_text: I, JOSEPH JOHN BUTCHER, of 4 St Nicholas' Buildings, in, the City and County
of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of my invention
for IMPROVED IGNITING VAIE FOR GAS ENGINES to be as follows:-
For the purpose of igniting these engines I use a valve of ordinary flat faced
type having one face next to the engine and the other face next to the valve cover,
which is pressed down by any usual and suitable arrangement upon it. This valve
has a small chamber formed within it which, before being brought into com-
munication with the engine, is in communication with the atmosphere through
(preferably) two ports, one of which opens through the valve cover, and the other
of which opens through a port in the cylinder face or in the removable face
attached to it. It is supplied with gas by means of an orifice (or orifices) within
the valve itself which during the first part of the stroke is in open communication
with a groove in the valve cover which communicates with the gas supply pipe.
To ensure the combustion of this gas with the air within the valve another passage
is formed within the valve from the opposite side of the recess or flame pocket,
which passage terminates in a hole upon the face of the valve which is next to the
valve cover.
This hole communicates with a groove in the valve cover face which
is in open connection, through suitable passages with a receiver or chamber
(preferably cast within the valve cover). The receiver is in connection with an air
suction pump and a small back pressure valve is fitted between the receiver and
the pump so as to prevent any return of gas from the pump to the receiver.
The pump is caused to produce a light constant (or as nearly constant as is
practicable) vacuum in the receiver and thus it sucks from the valve the burned
gases and facilitates a regular flow of air and gas into it. I place a permanent
flame just outside the valve in a suitable aperture formed within the cover so as to
relight the gas and air in the valve when it has gone out. In some types of gas
engines an air pump is used for sucking the gases out of the cylinder after they
are burned at the end of the stroke, and in this case this pump may be also made
to perform the operation of suction from the valve. As the valve moves towards
the position in which it opens to the compressed charge in the engine I usually
make it cut off from the coal gas supply first; then almost simultaneously close
against air and very slightly open to the compressed charge within the engine;
then instantly close against the suction port so as to leave the flame pocket very

page_text: slightly open to the compressed charge only and then open fully to the compressed
charge so as to effect ignition. I also so form the ports that upon the return stroke
of the valve if any pressure gas remains in the flame pocket it is allowed to escape
towards the atmosphere and towards the vacuum chamber or towards one or the
other before the pocket opens at a point opposite the permanent flame. This is
done to prevent the latter being blown out by the puff of gas that would otherwise
be produced.
Dated this twenty seventh day of March 1884.
I, JOSEPH JOHN BUTCHER of 4 St Nicholas' Buildings, in the City and County
of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of my invention
for AN IMPROVED IGNITING VALVE FOR GAS ENGINES and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement :—
For the purpose of igniting these engines I use a valve of ordinary flat faced
type having one face next to the engine and the other face next to the valve cover
which is pressed down by any usual and suitable arrangement upon it. This valve
has a small chamber formed within it which before being brought into com-
munication with the engine, is in communication with the atmosphere through
(preferably) two ports, one of which opens through the valve cover and the other
of which opens through a port in the cylinder face or in the removable face
attached to it. It is supplied with gas by means of an orifice (or orifices) within
the valve itself which during the first part of the stroke is in open communication
with a groove in the valve cover which communicates with the gas supply pipe.
To ensure the combustion of this gas with the air within the valve another passage
is formed within the valve from the opposite side of the recess or flame pocket,
which passage terminates in a hole upon the face of the valve which is next to the
valve cover. This hole communicates with a groove in the valve cover face which
is in open connection, through suitable passages with a receiver or chamber
(preferably cast within the valve cover). The receiver is in connection with an
air suction pump and a small back pressure valve is fitted between the receiver
and the pump so as to prevent any return of gas from the pump to the receiver.
The pump is caused to produce a light constant (or as nearly constant as is
practicable) vacuum in the receiver and thus it sucks from the valve the burned
gases and facilitates the regular flow of air and gas into it. I place a permanent
Hame just outside the valve in a suitable aperture formed within the cover so as to
relight the gas and air in the valve when it has gone out. In some types of gas
engines an air pump is used for sucking the gases out of the cylinder after they
are burned at the end of the stroke, and in this case this pump may be also made
to perform the operation of sucking from the valve. As the valve moves towards
the position in which it opens to the compressed charge in the engine I usually
make. it cut off from the coal gas supply first; then almost simultaneously close

page_text: against air and very slightly open to the compressed charge within the engine;
then instantly close against the suction port so as to leave the flame pocket very
slightly open to the compressed charge only and then open fully to the compressed
charge so as to effect ignition. I also so form the ports that upon the return stroke
of the valve if any pressure gas remains in the flame pocket it is allowed to escape
towards the atmosphere and towards the vacuum chamber or towards one or the
other before the pocket opens at a point opposite the permanent flame. This is
done to prevent the latter being blown out by the puff of gas that would otherwise
be produced.
Fig 1 is a section through AA; fig 2 is an end view%; fig 3 is a section
through A A¹; fig 4 is a sectional plan; and fig 5 is a section through B. B. of an
igniting valve and its accessories such as that described. The valve and the faces
against which it works are shewn in figs 6 to 10; similar letters denote similar
objects throughout.
a and b are two gas cocks, the former of which supplies the permanent flame
through the nipple or gas burner a¹ (figs 1 and 4), and the latter of which supplies,
through the passages 61 and 62 and the groove 63, the passages 6 and 65, and the
flame pocket 66 with gas. The pocket in the slide valve 6 is fed with air through
the two apertures 67 and 68, the first of which is distinctly opposite the permanent
flame a¹ and the second of which communicates with the atmosphere through the
port in the valve face b° and groove 610. 61 and 6 are suction pipes communi..
cating (when the valve is in such a position that its two ports 67 and 6ª are open to
the atmosphere) with the grooves in the valve cover 6¹³. "This groove is in constant
communication with the receiver 614 formed within the valve cover. The receiver
is exhausted through the valve and pipe 615 so as to be kept while the engine is
working at a pressure constantly below that of the atmosphere, the pipe which is
shewn broken being in communication with the suction pipe preferably through
a small regulating cock. In cases in which the pump which exhausts this receiver
ceases to suck very much before the port 6" cuts off from the groove b¹³ the
receiver must be considerably larger than that shewn and this purpose may be
effected be attaching a light air vessel to the receiver in the valve cover or by any
other convenient means. Where the small drilled holes in the valve and faces
terminate at both sides internally they are drilled from the surface and a plug is
then inserted to stop them up for the depth which is not actually required. c is a
chimney for the permanent flame and d, d¹, d', d³ are springs holding the cover and
valve against the engine face. e, e¹, elo are oil grooves connected with the
oil tray which may be fed by any lubricator which will give a constant supply of
oil. The grooves must be placed in such positions (as shewn in the drawing) as
not to interfere with the ports, while they will at the same time ensure a
distribution of oil over the entire working surfaces. g is the igniting port of the
engine and the valve travels between the position in which the port 68 is fully
open to the port g and the position in which it has reached the end of the port b³
in the direction opposite to the igniting port.
Having now described the nature of my said invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed, I declare that I claim
1. The use in a gas engine of an igniting flame contained within a pocket in a
slide valve, the air and gas for which enter at one part or end of the pocket, and
the products of combustion resulting from which are withdrawn from another part
or end of the pocket into a vacuum chamber or passage, the reduced pressure
within which is produced by a pump substantially as hereinbefore described and
illustrated in the accompanying drawing.
2. The use in a gas engine of a receiver or chamber the gases within which are
kept at a pressure somewhat below that of the atmosphere and which is applied to
the purpose of causing a through draught in the flame pocket of an igniting slide
valve substantially as hereinbefore described and illustrated in the accompanying
drawing.

page_text: 3. The use of the flame pocket of a gas engine igniting valve, in which the
aperture through which the permanent flame ignites the flame in the pocket is
used also as an air inlet passage, of a separate air inlet or ventilating port upon the
opposite side of the pocket or elsewhere substantially as hereinbefore described and
illustrated in the accompanying drawing.
4. The use in the slide valve of a gas engine of a port for the escape of the
products of combustion of the travelling flame within the pocket, separate from
the port opposite the permanent flame, and making connection with a groove in
the slide valve cover substantially as described and illustrated in the accompanying
drawings.
5. The use in the flame pocket of a gas engine igniting slide of a port or ports
separate from that opposite the permanent flame, and so. arranged that when the.
valve is moving back upon its return stroke after igniting the charge in the motor
cylinder this port opens or these ports open so as to allow of the escape of the
pressure gas contained in the flame pocket before the port opposite the permanent
flame is opened by the travel of the valve, substantially as described and illustrated
in the accompanying drawings.
6. The use of a pump, used chiefly for discharging or recharging the motor
cylinder of a gas engine, as a circulating or ventilating pump for drawing the
travelling flame through the pocket of the igniting slide, substantially as described
and illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
Dated this twenty seventh day of December eighteen hundred and eighty four.