Improvements in or relating to Explosion Engines.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 11th Jan., 1
1897
Complete Specification Left, 15th July, 1897--Accepted, 11th Feb., 1898
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or relating to Explosion Engines.
We, MONTAGUE HERBERT CHURCHILL SHANN, of Westfield, Bromley, in the
County of Kent, Engineer, and RICHARD ERNEST CHURCHILL SHIANN; also of West-
field, Bromley, in the County of Kent, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of
this invention to be as follows:
This invention relates to explosion engines and we will describe it as applied
to that type in which the fuel is supplied in the form of oil adapted to be vapourised
in the cylinder; nevertheless the invention may be used with spirit or gas engines
and we do not limit its application in this respect.
In carrying out the invention we employ a cylinder closed at both ends, the
end which would usually with engines of this description be open, being supplied
with atmospheric valves preferably in the cover so that as the piston travels on its
inward stroke atmospheric air will be sucked into the cylinder. The piston is hollow
and is provided with valves at its forward or outer end so that the air sucked into
the cylinder upon the inward stroke will be compressed inside the piston upon the
outward stroke. The back of the cylinder is employed as the combustion or ex-
plosion chamber and the air from the interior of the piston passes into this space
by means of a valve and impinges upon the oil which enters the cylinder through
the cylinder wall or back end or cover, thus spraying or vapourising it and mixing
the air and vapour so as to form an explosive mixture. The valve which we will
term to No. 1 piston valve is adapted to be operated by a movable weight or pendulum
inside the piston arranged so as to obtain advantage of leverage whereby it will
have sufficient power to open the valve against the pressure of the air notwith-
standing that the weight itself is a comparatively light one. To facilitate the
opening of the valve we may arrange a port or channel in the wall of the cylinder
opening into a passage to the interior of the piston at a certain portion of the
stroke which would have the effect of approximately equalizing the pressure
between that at the back of the piston and the same side of the No. 1 valve. This
pressure would be somewhat less, than that in the inside of the piston, so that when
the valve was opened, the pressure from the interior would rush through to the
cylinder behind the valve, impinging upon the oil as already described and raising
that pressure to the maximum before the explosion. The difference between the
two pressures being thus relatively slight no great power is required to open the
No. 1 valve.
In the piston we may employ another or No. 2 valve which would serve to prevent
the access of the pressure from the back of the cylinder to the underside of the
No. 1 valve excepting when that was desirable, in which case it would be effected
in the manner already described by the means of the bye-pass. The object of the
No. 2 valve is to allow the excess of pressure at the inside of the piston to reach
the back of the piston when the No. 1 valve and the No. 2 valve are both open.
We prefer to operate the valves or other means of communication by the suspended
weight, but we may if preferred operate them positively by ordinary mechanism.

page_text: The exhaust may be disposed of by means of a separate valve operated by
mechanism in the usual manner, though we prefer to do this by means of an
eccentric instead of gearing.
That portion of the cylinder in which the explosion takes place we prefer to line
with one or more, conveniently two, liners of suitable metal or alloy, for example
such as is now commonly used for ignition tubes; these liners may be cut longitu-
dinally and sprung into position, and between each of them, and also between them
and the cylinder wall we may place a sheet of asbestos paper or cloth or equivalent
non-conducting material which may be applied in a plastic or fluid form if preferred.
The explosion end of the piston may be similarly protected out in this case we
arrange the covering either as separate caps which would be sprung on, or for
convenience of application two discs may be applied to the end and two overlapping
rings to the periphery, the rings being split and checked into each other and into the
piston by a register or otherwise conveniently secured. One of them may be
flanged at the end to secure the discs, non-conducting material may be employed
as before. With the arrangement described the protected end of the piston need
not be a tight or rubbing fit in the explosion end of the cylinder, but merely a
free floating fit, a tight fit being made by rings in the ordinary manner at a further
portion of the cylinder which may be water jacketted or not according to require-
ment.
The engine may be made double, that is with two pistons in the one cylinder,
and the explosion taking place between them, the cylinders working by means of
suitable connecting rods or equivalent upon the same crank shaft; in this case, the
valves need not necessarily be duplicated as the one piston can be arranged to supply
all the air or pressure that is required but they may be duplicated if preferred..
To assist in expelling the products of combustion as well as to ensure a full supply
of air, a fan or blower may be used to inject air at a low pressure into the explosion
portion of the cylinder during the time that the valve which admits the high
pressure air is closed. This may be effected either by pressure or suction but we
prefer pressure.
Dated this 11th day of Tannam 1807
BOULT & WADE,
Agents for the Applicants.
Improvements in or relating to Explosion Engines.
1! :
We, MONTAGUE HERBERT CHURCHILL SHANN, and RICHARD ERNEST CHURCIIILI.
SHANN, Engineers, both of Shoreham, in the County of Sussex, formerly of West-
field, Bromley, Kent, 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:-
This invention relates to internal combustion engines and is described as applied
to that type in which the fuel is supplied in the form of oil adapted to be vapourised
in the cylinder; nevertheless the invention may be used with spirit or gas engines
and its application is not limited in this respect."
In the accompanying drawings,
Figure 1 is a longitudinal section of the cylinder of an engine constructed
according to, this invention, the piston being shown in elevation.
Figure 2 is a longitudinal and
Figure 3 a cross section of the piston, on an enlarged scale,
+

page_text: Figure 4 is a detail view of the piston valve D, and its seating and
Figure 5 is a cross section on the line 5-5 of Figure 1.
Like letters refer to like parts in all the drawings.
The cylinder is shown constructed in two parts, the working cylinder A, hereafter
called the pump end, and the combustion chamber B.
"
The pump end A instead of being open as is usual in engines of this description
is closed by,
a cover A¹ and provided,, preferably as shown in Figure 1, in the
cover, with a valve or valves A2, for the inlet of air which is sucked in on the inward
stroke of the piston. The cover has a stuffing box A3 or ordinary construction for
the piston rod to work in.
A hole, A is made through the wall of the pump-end A and communicates with
the combustion chamber through the tubular connection A5 and the hole B. The
use of this arrangement is described later.
2.310
.
The piston C is hollow, as shown in Figures 2 and 3, and provided with an inlet
valve or y
valves C¹ on the piston rod end, so that the air sucked into the cylinder
on the inward stroke is forced into the piston itself on the outward stroke. The
combustion end of the piston has a boss C inside the piston with passages C³, C
forming a communication between the inside of the piston and the combustion
chamber B. The mouth of the passage Copening into the piston has a seat for
à valve D. This valve is shown in Figures 3 and 4 but omitted in Figure 2, for the
sake of clearness... The valve D, is operated by a cam 11 by means of the floating or
pendulum weight 13. The weight is fixed by bolts 1 to the rocking shafts D³ and
arms De pivotted by pins D2 in the frame C formed, on the end plate of the piton.
The pin 12 nearest the combustion end of the piston carries the cam D' for operat-
ing the valve D.
To facilitate the opening of the valve a port or channel C is formed through the
side of the piston toward the piston rod end, and connected with the passage C+
through the pipe C. The opening 07 is placed so as to correspond with the
opening A in the cylinder wall, before described, at, or just before, the completion of
the inward stroke, the passage C+ and through it the underside of the valve D' being
'thuis placed in communication with the combustion chamber. Since the pressure
in the combustion chamber at that moment is only slightly less than the pressure in
the inside of the piston the pressures on the two sides of the valve D are approxi-
mately equalised and no great power is required to open it.
In order to prevent any communication between the combustion chamber and the
underside of the valve D, except through the bye-pass C7, C8 in the manner already
described, a non-return valve D8 (Figure 3) may be placed between the
passages CC. The seat C for this valve is shown in Figure 2 but the valve itself
omitted. This valve lifts when the valve D is opened the pressure on its underside
being then in excess.
Instead of operating the valve D by means of a floating weight as described
it may, if preferred, be worked positively by ordinary mechanism.
The passage C3 opens into the combustion chamber through a flat nozzle E, placed
so that just before and at the completion of the inward stroke of the piston it passes
immediately beneath and at a right angle with the oil nozzle F, which is fixed
on the inside wall of the combustion chamber, and connected with any convenient
oil supply by the pipe F. Any usual kind of ignition tube preferably an electric
one, as shown at G, may be placed in the combustion chamber.
The exhaust may be disposed of by means of a port H and valve operated by
mechanism in the usual way, preferably by means of an eccentric.
In order to assist in expelling the products of combustion, as well as to ensure
a full supply of air for the explosive mixture, a fan or blower of any usual type
may be employed to inject air at a low pressure but in ample volume for the purposes
mentioned into the combustion chamber, during the time that the exhaust valve
is open and the valve D which admits the high pressure air from the piston, 'is
closed. An opening B² is provided for this purpose, a non-return valve, which may

page_text: be of the form shown at I in Figure 1 being placed between the combustion chamber
and the fan or blower.
When the engine is running, the piston, during its inward stroke, sucks air
into the pump end of the cylinder through the valves A³ this air being forced
through the valves C₁ into and compressed within the hollow piston on its return
or outward stroke.
On the opening of the exhaust valve the pressure within the combustion
chamber B is reduced so that the valve I opens and a full current of air from the
blower sweeps out the products of combustion from the chamber B and fills it with
atmospheric air. The exhaust valve is closed at a convenient period of the inward
stroke, so that this air is compressed during the remainder of the stroke, and is
considerably above the pressure of the atmosphere when the liquid fuel and the
air blast from the piston enter the combustion chamber to form the explosive
mixture.
This takes place at about the end of the inward stroke the valve D being lifted
as before described and the compressed air delivered from the piston into the
combustion chamber, through the nozzle E at a high velocity. From the respective
positions of the nozzles E and F the air impinges on the oil entering the combustion
chamber B spraying and vapourizing it, and mixing the air and oil vapour so as
to form an explosive mixture.
The portion of the cylinder forming the combustion chamber B may be furnished
with one or more liners of suitable metal or alloy for example such as is now
commonly used for ignition 'tubes. Two such liners B are shown in Figure 1.
The liners may be conveniently formed with a longitudinal cut and sprung into
position, and between each of them and also between the inner one and the cylinder
wall a sheet of asbestos paper or cloth may be placed or equivalent non-conducting
material may be applied, in a plastic form if preferred. The end of the piston
which enters the explosion chamber may be similarly protected either by using
caps which may be sprung on, or conveniently two discs, such as C10 may be applied
to the end of the piston and rings, or a ring C", split and checked into the piston
wall, sprung around its periphery. The ring may be flanged as at C12 to secure the
end discs, and non-conducting material may be used as with the cylinder liners.
The protected end of the piston need not be a tight fit in the cylinder but is
preferably a free or floating fit, the joint between the piston and cylinder being
.made by the crank or outer end of the piston which works in the pump end of the
cylinder and may be furnished with rings C3 of any usual construction.
The engine may be made double that is with two pistons in one cylinder the
.explosion taking place between them the pistons working by means of suitable
connecting rods or equivalent upon the same crank shaft. In this case the valves
need not necessarily be duplicated as the one piston may be arranged to supply
all the air or pressure that is required the other being of ordinary construction
but they may be duplicated and both pistons employed for supplying the air blast
if preferred.
If only one end of the cylinder is used to compress air within the piston the
cylinder end in which the solid piston works would be open without a cover in the
usual manner.
When gas is used as the fuel instead of oil, the piston sucks in the mixture of
gas and air instead of air only as previously described.
The engine may be arranged to be reversed by reversing the direction of
movement of the flv-wheel.
For ignition purposes any suitable device may be employed as for example an
ignition tube heated by an external flame or an electric spark device; and although
such a device may be employed if required for igniting during the ordinary
operation of the engine yet when the cylinder has become fully heated, this engine
is designed to work without any special means of ignition. This is accomplished
by working with a "hot" cylinder, those portions of the engine liable to be

page_text: damaged by excessive heat, being as above described, protected, and the engine
intended to be run without the provision of any means for cooling the cylinder.
By the term "hot" cylinder we mean a cylinder hot enough to ignite the explosive
mixture without the assistance of an igniting tube or equivalent. In some engines
at present in use, a tube or extension is employed, which gets sufficiently hot after
a time to ignite the charge when compressed into it. That tube however is not the
cylinder but a small extension which readily becomes hot the remaining portion-
the cylinder proper-being relatively cold with the result that an offensive odour
is inevitably given off; in our engine the whole of the cylinder walls with which
the explosive mixture comes into contact are so hot that wherever the mixture
touches them, it is ignited thus securing much more perfect ignition and combustion,
and preventing the offensive odour which is due to the imperfect combustion.
Usually this heat would be what is known to engineers as a fire" heat which
might or might not be a "red" heat.
Hitherto engines of this description have, so far as we are aware, always been
provided with some means-usually a water jacket, or in the case of small power
engines, sometimes vanes or gills formed upon the outside of the cylinder to
facilitate radiation of heat-for getting rid of the excessive heat, these means forming
an element of waste antagonistic to the economical working of the engine. In
designing our engine however, we have worked upon different lines, and, instead
of getting rid of what has previously been considered the excessive heat generated
in the working of the engine, we are able to utilise that heat and thus increase the
economy of our engine. One great difficulty hitherto experienced has been that
when the cylinder became overheated, with the means usually adopted of forming
or introducing the explosive or inflammable mixture, ignition would take place
too soon, and before compression was completed; it was therefore found impossible
to obtain the ignition of the charge at the proper time, if the cylinder was allowed
to reach nearly so high a temperature as we propose to employ. With a hot
cylinder also the working of the piston was liable to cause cutting. In our engine
even with the cylinder at a red heat, it is impossible for premature ignition to
take place. We only introduce the oil or gas or render the mixture explosive
at or about the moment of full compression or when the piston has reached the end
of its instroke (or even later if desired) and consequently it is impossible for
ignition to occur too soon and this source of danger from the hot cylinder is there-
fore entirely obviated in our engine. The danger of cutting by the piston is also
met by the lining of the cylinder and the coating of that portion of the piston
which is exposed to the chief heat, with non-conducting material, this portion of the
piston being made to slide without touching the wall of the cylinder.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what
we claim is:-
1. An explosion engine in which the cylinder is worked "hot."
"
2. In an internal combustion engine in which a hot" cylinder is used intro-
ducing the explosive charge at or after the dead point or the point of full com-
pression.
3. In an internal combustion engine rendering explosive the charge of air
already fully compressed within the cylinder whereby a hot" cylinder can be
employed without danger of premature ignition.
4. In an exploson engine introducing energetically at the moment of ignition
the liquid fuel into the atmospheric air already compressed within the cylinder.
5. In an explosion engine introducing energetically at the moment of ignition the
gas into the atmospheric air already compressed within the cylinder.
6. In an internal combustion engine introducing the fuel into the atmospheric
air compressed within the cylinder substantially in the manner described.
7. In an internal combustion engine spraying or vapourising the liquid fuel
into the explosion chamber by two separate jets, one of them being an air. jet and

page_text: both under pressure greater than that in the chamber and meeting at or near their
orifices.
8. In an internal combustion engine introducing the liquid fuel into the explosion
chamber by two separate nozzles or entrances, one of them being an air jet under
pressure exceeding that which it will meet.
i
9. In an internal combustion engine the employment of an independent air
jet inside the cylinder or explosion chamber for spraying or vapourising the liquid
fuel.
10. In an internal combustion engine the spraying or vapourising the liquid
fuel, by the pulverizing action of an air jet at a pressure in excess of that in the
explosion chamber into which it is introduced.
11. In an internal combustion engine spraying or vapourising liquid fuel by
introducing it into the explosion chamber in which the air or gas is already com-
pressed above the atmospheric pressure and pulverizing it with an air jet also at
a higher pressure.
12. In an internal combustion engine compressing the air within the piston.
13. In an internal combustion engine sucking the air into the non-explosion end
of the cylinder, compressing it inside the piston and delivering it from there to the
explosion end of the cylinder for the purpose described.
14. In an internal combustion engine obtaining a pressure jet of air, for spraying
or vapourizing liquid fuel in an explosion chamber by compressing inside the piston
the air previously sucked into the non-explosion end of the cylinder.
15. In an internal combustion engine the combination with a hollow piston in
which air is compressed of a weight-operated valve substantially as described.
16. In an internal combustion engine operating the valve in the piston by a float-
ing weight substantially as described.
17. In an internal combustion engine the combination with a hollow piston in
which air is compressed and having a branch or port opening through its wall of
a corresponding port in the cylinder wall through which at the appointed time the
pressure can pass for the purpose of equalizing the pressures inside the piston
and in the explosion chamber.
18. In an internal combustion engine the combination with a hollow piston
in which air is compressed of two valves such as D and D8 operating substantially
as and for the purpose described.
19. In an internal combustion engine employing a hollow piston and utilizing
the compression therein for the purpose of forming the explosive mixture.
20. In an internal combustion engine in which the complete cycle of operations
takes place at each revolution of the crank shaft washing out the products of com-
bustion by admitting a relatively large quantity of air and closing the exhaust valve
before the completion of the instroke of the piston and compressing the charge
by the remainder of that stroke.
1
J.
21. As a means of protecting the interior of the cylinder of an internal combustion
engine against excessive heat lining it with a metal liner and a non-conducting
material between the liner and the cylinder wall.
22. Protecting the piston of an internal combustion engine from excessive heat
by covering the exposed portion thereof with a metal covering and a non-conducting
layer or film between the covering and the piston.
23. Securing a metal protecting cover to the piston of an internal combustion
engine in the manner described.
D
1011 J
1007
[ONTAGUE H. CHURCHILL SHANN.
ICHARD ERNEST CHURCHILL SHANN.
Boult & Wade,
Agents for the Applicants..