Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/768

 New Valveless Four -Cycle Gasoline Motor

��It is applicable for use in automobiles, motor -boats and stationary engines

��INTAKE AND EXHAUST PORT

BRONZE BOX ENCLOSING NECTIN& ROD BALL

��HORIZONTAL RING GEAR

��TWO Grand Rapids engineers have perfected a valveless four-cycle engine designed to eliminate the grinding of the valves and seats of the ordi- nary poppet valve engine and the power loss due to improper seating. The piston of each cylinder turns around at the same time that it is moving up and down. As the engine operates, the spiral gear, mounted on a horizontal shaft enclosed in the crank-case, turns the horizontal ring gear meshed with intake AND EXHAUST POCKETS

it. Moving with this are the L-arm and the piston, the latter moving up and down on the arm. The recip- rocating move- ment of each pis- ton is secured while it is turningaround by means of an ordinary connect- ing rod which also has a ball-and- socket joint at the top.

The motor may be run on gasoline or kerosene. The piston consists of two hollow concentric cylinders, the closed top of the outer one forming the head of the piston. The angular space be- tween the two pistons is open at the top through a short segmental port in the head and at the bottom through a port in the piston wall.

By proportioning the spiral gear and the gear ring so that the piston makes one complete revolution to two revolutions of the motor shaft, the piston port is made to register with the intake port for the admission of the fuel gas. The latter passes up through the piston to the top of the cylinder. As the piston turns around, the intake is closed and remains closed while the piston is moving up and com- pressing the gas. It remains closed as the

��gas is exploded and as the piston is forced

��down, bottom

��the

��con-

��C0MBU5TI0N CHAMBER

PISTON

ROTATING ROD MOUNTED OW HORIZONTAL RING GEAR

��BALL JOINT

���SPIRAL

SILENT CHAIN

��Before the piston gets to of its expansion stroke, its tinned turning makes its port register with the exhaust port, the burnt gases passing down through the port in the head and out through the exhaust port during the remainder of that stroke and all of the next upward one. The cycle is repeated as the en- gine operates.

The combined circular and up- and-down move- ment of the cy- linders is accom- plished through the spiral gears mounted on the horizontal shaft en- closed in the crank- case on one side and driven off the main shaft by means of a silent chain. One spiral gear is employed for each piston, gear meshing with the horizontal ring gear around the base of the cylinder. The ring gear also carries the L-shaped arm.

��WEAR ON BROMZE BOX TAKEN UP HERE

��CONNECTING ROD

��PROCKET ON MAIN DRIVE 5HAFT

��th(

��The absence of valves reduces vibra- tion to a minimum and insures stability. All charges are of equal proportion

��New Uses Suggested for the Rubber Sponge

RUBBER sponge is about the lightest . solid body known. True, it is full of holes, but it is nevertheless watertight and very nearly gastight when molded int6 forms. For life preservers it is an ideal material. As an automobile tire filler it promises to transplant fillers which heat up or decompose. For this use it must be molded to fit the inside of the tubing. It has even been suggested as a clothing material for aeronauts.

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