Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 89.djvu/522

 Pumping Gasoline to the Motor

��A WESTERN manufacturer is mar- keting a device designed to elim- inate the troubles encountered in the feeding of gasoline to the motor of an automobile from a tank by grav- ity during hill-climbing, when the car- buretor is higher than the tank, or for keeping the feed-lines from leaking when the pressure system is used. It feeds the gasoline automatically and positively by utilizing the vacuum of the motor on its intake-strokes. The vacuum system feeds the gasoline on the steepest grades. It is not dependent upon the tightness of the feed lines for its operation, as in the pressure system.

The device consists of two small tanks, one within the other, usual- ly mounted on the dash under the hood. The upper inner tank is connected with the intake manifold, while another pipe connects it with the main gas- oline-supply tank. The lower tank is connected with the carburetor.

The in take -strokes of the motor create a vacuum in the upper tank. Gasoline rushes from the supply tank to fill the vacuum. As

VACUUM

TANK \ V/FWT INTAKE \ ^'■"'

nANIFOLD \ P'PE

SUCTION

���the gasoline thus flows into the upper tank, it raises a float to a certain height, thus shutting off the vacuum-valve, at the saine time opening an atmospheric- valve at the bottom of an air-vent pipe as shown in the accompanying illustrations.

By this arrangement the gasoline can now flow down into the lower tank, which is always open to the atmos- phere by means of an air-vent at the top. When the float in the upper tank drops, as the gasoline flows down, it automatically re-opens the vacuum- valve. More gasoline is sucked in, and simultane- ously the atmospheric valve is shut off. A study of the illustration in the oval will make this clear. The process is repeated continuously while the motor is running, and however steep the grade there should be no trouble encountered in the feed- ing of gasoline to the motor.

Detail of the vacuum gasoline feed. When a vacuum is created by the motor on each intake- stroke gasoUne rushes into the upper chamber. The float-valve rises with the gasoline, cuts off the vacuum-valve, and opens the valve leading to the lower chamber, so that the gasoline may pass down into the lower tank

���CARBURETOR

��CARBURUOR I

PlPL 5UPPLY PIPt

Sectional view of automobile. An arrangement whereby the vacuum created by the motor on its intake strokes causes a flow of gasoline to the motor, thus eliminating the feeding trouble usually encountered on steep up-grades with the gravity or prcwure systems

��508

�� �