ng, so that should any difficulty arise, the
engine attendant will be able to reason out for himself the cause of the
trouble, and will thus know the proper remedy to apply. This will give
him a command over his engine which should render him equal to any
emergency.

WALTER C. RUNCIMAN.

LONDON, E.C.

GAS AND OIL ENGINES

SIMPLY EXPLAINED

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY

The history of the gas engine goes back a long way, and the history of
the internal combustion engine proper further still. It will be
interesting to recount the main points in the history of the development
of the class of engine we shall deal with in the following pages, in
order to show what huge strides were made soon after the correct and
most workable theory had been formulated.

In 1678 Abbe Hautefeuille explained how a machine could be constructed
to work with gunpowder as fuel. His arrangement was to explode the
gunpowder in a closed vessel provided with valves, and cool the products
of combustion, and so cause a partial vacuum to be formed. By the aid of
such a machine, water could be raised. This inventor, however, does not
seem to have carried out any experiments.

In 1685 Huyghens designed another powder machine; and Papin, in 1688,
described a similar machine, which was provided with regular valves, as
devised by himself, in the _Proceedings of the Leipsic Academy_, 1688.
From this time until 1791, when John Barber took out a patent for the
production of force by the combustion of hydrocarbon in air, practically
no advancement was made. The latter patent, curiously enough, comprised
a very primitive form of rotary engine. Barber proposed to turn coal,
oil, or other combustible stuff into gas by means of external firing,
and then to mix the gases so produced with air in a vessel called the
exploder. This mixture was then ignited as it issued from the vessel,
and the ensuing flash caused a paddle-wheel to rotate. Mention is also
made that it was an object to inject a little water into the exploder,
in order to strengthen the force of the flash.

Robert Street's patent of 1794 mentions a piston engine, in the cylinder
of which, coal tar, spirit, or turpentine was vaporised, the gases being
ignited by a light burning outside the cylinder. The piston in this
engine was thrown upwards, this in turn forcing a pump piston down which
did work in raising water. This was the first real gas engine, though it
was crude and very