Cambridge by Prof. Farish, who exhibited at his lectures on mechanics an engine actuated by the explosion of a mixture of gas and air within a cylinder, the explosion taking place from atmospheric pressure. Prof. Farish is also stated to have operated an engine by gunpowder. These engines of Farish and Cecil appear to be the very earliest in actual operation in the world.
Samuel Brown, in patents dated 1823 and 1826, proposed to fill a closed chamber with a gas flame, and so expel the air; then he condensed the flame by injecting water, and operated an air engine by exhausting into the partial vacuum so obtained. The idea was evidently suggested by Watt’s condensing steam engine, flame being employed instead of steam to obtain a vacuum. Brown’s engine is said to have been actually employed to pump water, drive a boat on the Thames, and propel a road carriage. L. W. Wright in 1833 described an explosion engine working at atmospheric pressure and exploding on both sides of the piston. The cylinder is shown as water-jacketed. In William Barnett’s engine of 1838 two great advances were made. The engine was so constructed that the mixture of gas and air was compressed to a considerable extent in the motor cylinder before ignition. The method of igniting the compressed charge was also effective. The problem of transferring a flame to the interior of a cylinder when the pressure is much in excess of that of the external air was solved by means of a hollow plug cock having a gas jet burning within the hollow. In one position the hollow was opened to the atmosphere, and a gas jet issuing within it was lit by an external flame, so that it burned within the hollow. The plug was then quickly rotated, so that it closed to the external air and opened to the engine cylinder; the flame continued to burn with the air contained in the cock, until the compressed inflammable mixture rushed into the space from the cylinder and ignited at the flame. This mode of ignition is in essentials the one adopted by Otto about thirty years later. To Barnett belongs the credit of being the first to realize clearly the great idea of compression before explosion in gas engines, and to show one way of carrying out the idea in practice. Barnett appears to have constructed an engine, but he attained no commercial success. Several attempts to produce gas engines were made between 1838 and 1860, but they were all failures. Several valuable ideas were published in 1855. Drake, an American, described a mode of igniting a combustible gaseous mixture by raising a thimble-shaped piece of metal to incandescence. In 1857 Barsanti and Matteucci proposed a free-piston engine, in which the explosion propelled a free piston against the atmosphere, and the work was done on the return stroke by the atmospheric pressure, a partial vacuum being produced under the piston. The engine never came into commercial use, although the fundamental idea was good.
Previous to 1860 the gas engine was entirely in the experimental stage, and in spite of many attempts no practical success was attained. E. Lenoir, whose patent is dated 1860, was the inventor of the first gas engine that was brought into general use. The piston, moving forward for a portion of its stroke by the energy stored in the fly-wheel, drew into the cylinder a charge of gas and air at the ordinary atmospheric pressure. At about half stroke the valves closed, and an explosion, caused by an electric spark, propelled the piston to the end of its stroke. On the return stroke the burnt gases were discharged, just as a steam engine exhausts. These operations were repeated on both sides of the piston, and the engine was thus double-acting. Four hundred of these engines were said to be at work in Paris in 1865, and the Reading Iron Works Company Limited built and sold one hundred of them in Great Britain. They were quiet, and smooth in running; the gas consumption, however, was excessive, amounting to about 100 cub. ft. per indicated horse-power per hour. The electrical ignition also gave trouble. Hugon improved on the engine in 1865 by the introduction of a flame ignition, but no real commercial success was attained till 1867, when Otto and Langen exhibited their free-piston engine in the Paris Exhibition of that year. This engine was identical in principle with the Barsanti and Matteucci, but Otto succeeded where those inventors failed. He worked out the engine in a very perfect manner, used flame ignition, and designed a practical clutch, which allowed the piston free movement in one direction but engaged with the fly-wheel shaft when moved in the other; it consisted of rollers and wedge-shaped pockets—the same clutch, in fact, as has since been so much used in free-wheel bicycles. This engine consumed about 40 cub. ft. of gas per brake horse-power per hour—less than half as much as the Lenoir. Several thousands were made and sold, but its strange appearance and unmechanical operation raised many objections. Several inventors meanwhile again advocated compression of the gaseous mixture before ignition, among them being Schmidt, a German, and Million, a Frenchman, both in 1861.
To a Frenchman, Alph. Beau de Rochas, belongs the credit of proposing, with perfect clearness, the cycle of operations now widely used in compression gas engines. In a pamphlet published in Paris in 1862, he stated that to obtain economy with an explosion engine four conditions are requisite: (1) The greatest possible cylinder volume with the least possible cooling surface; (2) the greatest possible rapidity of explosion; (3) the greatest possible expansion; and (4) the greatest possible pressure at the beginning of the expansion. The sole arrangement capable of satisfying these conditions he stated would be found in an engine operating as follows: (1) Suction during an entire out-stroke of the piston; (2) compression during the following in-stroke; (3) ignition at the dead point, and expansion during the third stroke; (4) forcing out of the burnt gases from the cylinder on the fourth and last return stroke. Beau de Rochas thus exactly contemplated, in theory at least, the engine produced by Dr Otto fourteen years later. He did not, however, put his engine into practice, and probably had no idea of the practical difficulties to be overcome before realizing his conception in iron and steel. To Dr Otto belongs the honour of independently inventing the same cycle, now correctly known as the Otto cycle, and at the same time overcoming all practical difficulties and making the gas engine of world-wide application. This he did in 1876, and his type of engine very rapidly surpassed all others, so that now the Otto-cycle engine is manufactured over the whole world by hundreds of makers. In 1876 Dr Otto used low compression, only about 30 ℔ per sq. in. above atmosphere. Year by year compression was increased and greater power and economy were obtained, and at present compressions of more than 100 ℔ per sq. in. are commonly used with most satisfactory results.
The history of the subject since 1876 is one of gradual improvement in detail of construction, enabling higher compressions to be used with safety, and of gradual but accelerating increase in dimensions and power. In the same period light and heavy oil engines have been developed, mostly using the Otto cycle (see Oil Engine).
Gas engines may be divided, so far as concerns their working process, into three well-defined types:—
(1) Engines igniting at constant volume, but without previous compression.
(2) Engines igniting at constant pressure, with previous compression.
(3) Engines igniting at constant volume, with previous compression.
For practical purposes engines of the first type may be disregarded. Gas engines without compression are now considered to be much too wasteful of gas to be of commercial importance. Those of the second type have never reached the stage of extended commercial application; they are scientifically interesting, however, and may take an important place in the future development of the gas engine. The expectations of Sir William Siemens with regard to them have not been realized, although he spent many years in experiments. Of other engineers who also devoted much thought and work to this second type may be mentioned Brayton (1872); Foulis (1878); Crowe (1883); Hargreaves (1888); Clerk (1889); and Diesel (1892). Diesel’s engines are proving successful as oil engines but have not been introduced as gas engines.
The working cycles of the three types are as follows:—
First Type.—Four operations.
(a) Charging the cylinder with explosive mixture at atmospheric pressure.
(b) Exploding the charge.
(c) Expanding after explosion.
(d) Expelling the burnt gases.
Second Type.—Five operations.
(a) Charging the pump cylinder with gas and air mixture at atmospheric pressure.
(b) Compressing the charge into an intermediate receiver.
(c) Admitting the charge to the motor cylinder, in a state of flame, at the pressure of compression.
(d) Expanding after admission.
(e) Expelling the burnt gases.
Third Type.—Five operations.
(a) Charging the cylinder with gas and air mixture at atmospheric pressure.
(b) Compressing the charge into a combustion space.
(c) Exploding the charge.
(d) Expanding after explosion.
(e) Expelling the burnt gases.
In all these types the heating of the working fluid is accomplished by the rapid method of combustion within the cylinder, and for the cooling necessary in all heat engines is substituted the complete rejection of the working fluid with the heat it contains, and its replacement by a fresh portion taken from the atmosphere at atmospheric temperature. This is the reason why those cycles can be repeated with almost indefinite rapidity, while the old hot-air engines had to run slowly in order to give time for the working fluid to heat or cool through metal surfaces.
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| Fig. 1.—Side Elevation of Otto Cycle Engine. |
Four-cycle Engines.—Otto-cycle engines belong to the third type, being explosion engines in which the combustible mixture
