Produced by deaurider, Robert Tonsing and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
_TRANSLATED AND ADAPTED FROM THE FRENCH OF HENRY DE GRAFFIGNY_
LONDON WHITTAKER AND CO. 2 WHITE HART STREET, PATERNOSTER SQUARE NEW YORK: 66 FIFTH AVENUE 1898
RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED, LONDON & BUNGAY.
The great and increasing importance of internal combustion motors is perhaps scarcely realized by the general public. For industrial purposes they have for many years been steadily gaining favour, and now hold an assured position. It is only in the last few years, however, that we have begun to recognize the drawbacks of horse-drawn vehicles, and the immense advantage gained by propelling them mechanically.
The suitability of oil engines for the purpose has awakened a widespread interest in them. The Editor therefore hopes that this little volume will be especially welcome to non-technical readers who like to keep ahead of the times in matters of such universal importance.
One chapter deals exclusively with the theory of the gas engine, but the non-technical mind should have no fear, for mathematics have been as far as possible avoided. It may also serve to dispel wrongful notions concerning the practical limits of the efficiency of gas engines which, we are sorry to say, exist even among persons living in a scientific atmosphere.
We have not spoken in the text of the extremely interesting results obtained from the oil engine invented by Herr Diesel of Berlin, because it has not yet been proved that this motor is strictly practicable. If, however, it turns out to be a commercial success, we hope to add a description of it at some future date.
II. THE WORKING PRINCIPLES OF THE GAS ENGINE 13
III. DESCRIPTION OF EXISTING GAS ENGINES 23
VIII. MAINTENANCE OF GAS AND OIL ENGINES 130
FIG. PAGE 1. Early Lenoir Motor 24 2. Bisschop Motor 25 3. Bénier Motor 26 4. Forest Motor 27 5. Plan of Dugald-Clerk Engine 30 6. Benz Gas Engine 32 7. Otto Gas Engine 36 8. ” ” ” (vertical type) 38 9. Lenoir Gas Engine 39 10. Koerting-Boulet Motor 40 11. Niel Gas Engine 44 12. Martini Motor 45 13. Lablin Three-cylinder Motor 46 14. Crossley Gas Engine (X type) 47 15. Crossley Gas Engine 48 16. Pygmée Gas Engine 50 17. National Gas Engine 52 18-19. De Forest Gas Engines 54 20. De Forest Double Piston Motor 54 21. Diagram of Atkinson Mechanism 58 22. Section of Charon Motor 58 23. Charon Motor 59 24. Roger Vertical Gas Engine 60 25. Vertical Gas Engine of the Compagnie Parisienne du Gaz 62 26. Maurice Motor (de Cadiot) 64 27. Durand Carburetted Air Motor 72 28. De Dion Motor Tricycle 75 29. Campbell Oil Engine 81 30. Section of Grob Motor 83 31. Exterior View of Grob Oil Motor 84 32. Capitaine Gas Engine 86 33. Horizontal “Balance” Motor (Capitaine) 87 34. Capitaine Two-cylinder Gas Engine 88 35. Hornsby-Akroyd Oil Engine (section) 91 36. Exterior View of Hornsby-Akroyd Oil Engine 92 37-38. Sections of Ragot Petroleum Engine 94 39. Carburator of Ragot Oil Engine 96 40. Crossley-Holt Petroleum Engine 99 41-42. Griffin Oil Engine 101 43. Dowson Gas-producing Plant 108 44. Taylor Gas-producing Plant 114 45. Simplex Gas Engine (Delamare-Deboutteville) 123 46-47. Governor of Simplex Engine 123 48. Combined Simplex Engine and Buire-Lencauchez Gas-producer 124 49-50. Bénier Engine and Gas Plant (sectional plan and elevation) _face p._ 127 51. Section of Simplex Gas-producing Plant 135 52. Agricultural Oil Locomotive 137