radiator. A very large cooling surface is provided, so that the
same water is used over and over again. In a day’s run with a
modern petrol engine very little water is lost from the system.
Some engines dispense with a pump and depend on what is
called the thermo-syphon. This is the old gas-engine system
of circulation, depending on the different density of water when
hot and cool. The engine shown at fig. 5 is provided with a
water-circulation system of this kind. For the smaller engines
the thermo-syphon works extremely well.
Heavy oil engines are those which consume oil having a flashing-point above 73° F.—the minimum at present allowed by act of parliament in Great Britain for oils to be consumed in ordinary illuminating lamps. Such oils are American and Russian petroleums and Scottish paraffins. They vary in specific gravity from ·78 to ·825, and in flashing-point from 75° to 152° F. Engines burning such oils may be divided into three distinct classes: (1) Engines in which the oil is subjected to a spraying operation before vaporization; (2) Engines in which the oil is injected into the cylinder and vaporized within the cylinder; (3) Engines in which the oil is vaporized in a device external to the cylinder and introduced into the cylinder in the state of vapour.
The method of ignition might also be used to divide the engines into those igniting by the electric spark, by an incandescent tube, by compression, or by the heat of the internal surfaces of the combustion space. Spiel’s engine was ignited by a flame igniting device similar to that used in Clerk’s gas engine, and it was the only one introduced into Great Britain in which this method was adopted, though on the continent flame igniters were not uncommon. Electrically-operated igniters have come into extensive use throughout the world.
 Fig. 9.—Perfume Spray Producer. |
The engines first used in Great Britain which fell under the first head were the Priestman and Samuelson, the oil being sprayed before being vaporized in both. The principle of the spray producer used is that so well and so widely known in connexion with the atomizers or spray producers used by perfumers. Fig. 9 shows such a spray producer in section. An air blast passing from the small jet A crosses the top of the tube B and creates within it a partial vacuum. The liquid contained in C flows up the tube B and issuing at the top of the tube through a small orifice is at once blown into very fine spray by the action of the air jet. If such a scent distributor be filled with petroleum oil, such as Royal Daylight or Russoline, the oil will be blown into fine spray, which can be ignited by a flame and will burn, if the jets be properly proportioned, with an intense blue non-luminous flame. The earlier inventors often expressed the idea that an explosive mixture could be prepared without any vaporization whatever, by simply producing an atmosphere containing inflammable liquid in extremely small particles distributed throughout the air in such proportion as to allow of complete combustion. The familiar explosive combustion of lycopodium, and the disastrous explosions caused in the exhaustion rooms of flour-mills by the presence of finely divided flour in the air, have also suggested to inventors the idea of producing explosions for power purposes from combustible solids. Although, doubtless, explosions could be produced in that way, yet in oil engines the production of spray is only a preliminary to the vaporization of the oil. If a sample of oil is sprayed in the manner just described, and injected in a hot chamber also filled with hot air, it at once passes into a state of vapour within that chamber, even though the air be at a temperature far below the boiling-point of the oil; the spray producer, in fact, furnishes a ready means of saturating any volume of air with heavy petroleum oil to the full extent possible from the vapour tension of the oil at that particular temperature. The oil engines described below are in reality explosion gas engines of the ordinary Otto type, with special arrangements to enable them to vaporize the oil to be used. Only such parts of them as are necessary for the treatment and ignition will therefore be described.
Fig. 10 is a vertical section through the cylinder and vaporizer of a Priestman engine, and fig. 11 is a section on a larger scale, showing the vaporizing jet and the air admission and regulation valve leading to the vaporizer.
Fig. 10.—Priestman Oil Engine (vertical section through cylinder and vaporizer).
Oil is forced by means of air pressure from
a reservoir through a pipe to the spraying nozzle 𝑎, and air passes
Fig. 11.—Priestman Oil Engine
(section on a larger scale).
from an air-pump by way of the annular channel 𝑏 into the sprayer 𝑐,
and there meets the oil jet issuing from 𝑎. The oil is thus broken
up into spray, and the air charged with spray flows into the vaporizer
E, which is heated up in the first place on starting the engine by
means of a lamp. In the vaporizer the oil spray becomes oil vapour,
saturating the air within the hot walls. On the out-charging stroke
of the piston the mixture passes by way of the inlet valve H into the
cylinder, air flowing into the vaporizer to replace it through the
valve 𝑙 (fig. 11). The cylinder K is thus charged with a mixture of
air and hydrocarbon vapour, some of which may exist in the form of
very fine spray. The piston L then returns and compresses
mixture, and when the compression is quite complete an electric
spark is passed between the points M, and a compression explosion
is obtained precisely similar to that obtained in the gas engine.
The piston moves out, and on its return stroke the exhaust valve N
is opened and the exhaust gases discharged by way of the pipe O,
round the jacket P, enclosing
the vaporizing chamber. The
latter is thus kept hot by
the exhaust gases when the
engine is at work, and it
remains sufficiently hot without
the use of the lamp provided
for starting. To obtain
the electric spark a bichromate
battery with an
induction coil is used. The
spark is timed by contact
pieces operated by an
eccentric rod, used to actuate
the exhaust valve and the
air-pump for supplying the
oil chamber and the spraying
jet. To start the engine a
hand pump is worked until
the pressure is sufficient to
force the oil through the
spraying nozzle, and oil spray
is formed in the starting lamp; the spray and air mixed produce
a blue flame which heats the vaporizer. The fly-wheel is then rotated
by hand and the engine moves away. The eccentric shaft is driven
from the crank-shaft by means of toothed wheels, which reduce the
speed to one-half the revolutions of the crank-shaft. The charging
inlet valve is automatic. Governing is effected by throttling the
oil and air supply. The governor operates on the butterfly valve T
(fig. 11), and on the plug-cock 𝑡 connected to it, by means of the
spindle 𝑡′. The air and oil arc thus simultaneously reduced, and the
attempt is made to maintain the charge entering the cylinder at a
constant proportion by weight of oil and air, while reducing: the total
weight, and therefore volume, of the charge entering. The Priestman
engine thus gives an explosion on every second revolution in all
circumstances, whether the engine be running light or loaded.
