IMPROVEMENTS IN GAS MOTOR ENGINES."
Year: 1883

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Phillips Thompson of the Liverpool and London
Agency for Foreign Patent Solicitors 6 Lord Street Liverpool in the county
of Lancaster Civil Engineer for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN GAS
MOTOR ENGINES." a communication to him from abroad by Siegfried Marcus,
of Vienna, in the Empire of Austria
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said William Phillips Thompson at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 5th June 1883.
WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON of the Liverpool and London agency for Foreign
Patent Solicitors 6 Lord Street Liverpool in the county of Lancaster Civil
Engineer IMPROVEMENTS IN GAS MOTOR ENGINES a communication to me from
"
abroad by Siegfried Marcus of Vienna, in the Empire of Austria
This invention has for its object improvements in the distributing mechanism,
and in the magneto-electric igniting apparatus of my gas engine, patented by
Letters Patent N° 2423 of May 23 1882.
In the annexed drawing, Figs 1, 2 and 3 show the improved gas engine in side
elevation, upper view (partly in section), and transverse section respectively.
Figs 4, 5, 6, 8, and 9 are detail views of the igniting apparatus. Fig 7 shows a
detail of the governor.
The admission port o of the horizontal cylinder C which at once does the office
of an air compressing pump, is opened and closed by a slide t caused to oscillate
vertically by means of crank pulley and pitian . Every time the slide t moves
from its upmost to its undermost position or inversely, its opening o' is placed one
time upon the admission port o of the piston cylinder, therefore the gearing by
which motion is transmitted from the crank shaft A to the shaft of pulley r, must
be made in such a manner that the latter revolves only one time during two
evolutions of the former. According to this, explosive gas is twice admitted and
gnited in the cylinder during each revolution of pulley r. The speed of the engine
s regulated by a governor R, mounted upon the upper surface of the piston
ylinder C; the slide of this governor is connected with an angular lever w jointed
Danes S21

page_text: to a bar w¹, the wedge shaped part of which penetrates a slot in the stem of
suction valve V2 (see Figs 1 and 7). In consequence of this arrangement, the
suction valve V2 by which air enters that end of cylinder C which serves as an
air compressing pump, is kept more or less open, and gives passage to a part of the
air compressed by the piston. Else the whole quantity of compressed air would
escape into the receiver h and pass from there partly to the atomizer Q, partly
through stop cock m¹ to the mixing chamber M'. By means of the stop cock m
the quantity of air that enters the atomizer Q is regulated.
If an engine of the described construction shall be directly supplied with a
mixture of gaseous hydrocarburet and air, the atomizer Q specified in the specifi-
cation of Letters Patent N° 2423 of May 23 1882, becomes superfluous. It is
dispensed with, or its communications are cut off by the stop cocks m and m².
Then, a gas inlet pipe discharges itself into the chamber below valve V2, and by
the back stroke of the piston an explosive mixture of gas and air is sucked in, this
mixture escaping directly into the exploding chamber during the front stroke.
In this case the governor R obviously must act in such a manner, that the
admission of gas and air is eventually checked or cut off according to the velocity
of the engine.
The rotation of the main shaft A is transmitted to the shaft of crank pulley r by a
steel belt M, provided with projections or teeth, that engage corresponding recesses
in the belt pulleys F F¹; by this means a perfectly regular motion of the
distributing slide t is obtained.
As described in the specification to Letters Patent No 2423, of May 23, 1882, the
igniting of the explosive gas in the exploding chamber of my improved gas engine,
is automatically effected by an electric spark, this spark being produced by two
metallic pins z z¹ insulated from each other, and periodically closing and inter-
rupting an electric current. I have found that the continual good function of this
igniting mechanism ouly can be obtained, if the two metallic contact pins z z', slide
frictionally one along the other every time they meet. Blunt contact pins being.
employed, the products of combustion which deposit themselves upon said pins,
otherwise soon would so much diminish the conductibility of the contact surfaces,
that no further ignition could take place after some few explosions.
To remove this difficulty, I so construct the two contact pins zz¹, as to cause the
one to slide frictionally along the other, every time said pins meet. In this way
the contact surfaces are always kept in the state of metallic cleanness, and their
full conductibility is secured; furthermore exiguous metallic particles are broken
loose by friction, and heated to incandescence by the electric spark, the igniting
power of which is highly increased by this fact.
To produce a smart igniting spark, the movement of the contact pins must be so
timed with respect to the current generator, that the two contact pieces z and 2¹,
slide frictionally on each other during the magnetization of the core, and suddenly
separate themselves in the moment when demagnetization begins.
In order to make this frictional sliding of one contact piece on the other plainly
understood, I have represented these pieces, on a large scale, by the Figs 4, 5, 6, 8,
and 9 of the annexed drawing.
The frictional sliding of one contact piece on the other may be produced by an
endwise motion of one piece along the other, or by a rotary motion of the same.
In the arrangement shown by Fig 4, the rapid separation of the contact pins z
and is produced by the dropping of pin over the nose u¹ of the cam u and by
the tension of the small coiled spring secured to said pin. Fig. 9 represents the
two extreme positions that the movable pin z can take with respect to the
immovable pin z¹: in this Fig. the frictional sliding of pin z along pin ¹ is clearly
shown.
The Figs 5, 6, and 8 show a modified arrangement; in this case too, one contact
piece is immovably placed in the exploding chamber, while a rotary motion is
imparted by obvious means to the second contact piece 3, of a sectoral form. In
consequence of this rotary motion, the border of the contact piece slides

page_text: frictionally on pin z¹ and is rapidly separated therefrom in the moment when the
slide t closes again the admission port o, of the the piston cylinder C.
By the pitmany connected with belt pulley F, the lever S of the current
generator Z is caused to oscillate up and down and by pin 2, fixed to said lever
and penetrating the slotted arm 9 similar oscillations of variable speed are imparted
to the inducing core.
Having now described this invention as communicated to me what I claim is :-
1 In gas engines, the precise admission and suppression of the explosive gas by
means of an oscillating slide t, which moves only in one direction during
the front and back stroke of the piston, in consequence whereof at each oscillation
of said slide, the opening o¹ of slide t is placed upon the admission port o which is
rapidly opened and closed.
2nd In gas engines having the piston cylinder adapted to the use as an air-
compressing pump, the regulating of the velocity by a governor R, on the
slide of which is pivoted an angular lever w connected with a bar w', this latter
having a wedge shaped part that penetrates & slot in the stem of the suction
valve V2 through which air is admitted in the piston cylinder.
3rd For the purpose of precisely timing the movements of the distributing slide
valve to the speed of the engine, the gearing of both parts by a metallic
belt provided with projections or teeth, that engage corresponding recesses in the
belt pulleys.
4th For the purpose to permit a gas engine of the described and shown construction
to be supplied with a gaseous hydro-carburet, the conduction of this gas
into the chamber below suction valve V2, in which case the governor R regulates
the admission of gas and air.
.
5th In gas engines the automatic ignition of the explosive gas by means of an
electric spark produced by a magneto-electric current generator, and two
contact pieces which are insulated from each other and periodically move in
frictionally sliding contact one of another, and suddenly interrupt said contact:
this sliding contact and its interruption being so timed with respect to the current
generator that the two contact pieces side frictionally on each other during the
magnetization of the core, and suddenly separate themselves when demagnetization
begins.
In witness whereof I the said William Phillips Thompson have hereunto set my
hand and seal this fourth day of June in the year of our Lord one thousand
eight hundred and eighty three