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Engine systems
Published in Tom Denton, Automobile Mechanical and Electrical Systems, 2018
After the combustion chamber has been charged with gas (air or fuel/air) during the induction stroke, the cylinder inlet and exhaust valves are both closed and seal the combustion chamber. The piston begins to rise in the cylinder, thus reducing the volume of the cylinder space and hence increasing the pressure of the trapped gas charge in the cylinder before combustion. The opening and closing of the valves is executed in sequence via the engine valve gear, synchronized with the four-stroke cycle and piston position.
William Fairbairn: The Experimental Engineer: A Study in Mid 19th-Century Engineering
Published in The International Journal for the History of Engineering & Technology, 2020
The tabulation of all known Fairbairn engines in his Appendix 3.1 is a valuable exercise by Byrom although some doubt attaches to the Orrell’s Mill engine which may have been by Boulton and Watt. As to the claim that Fairbairn introduced the important feature of the geared flywheel, the idea is as old as the Boulton and Watt rotative engine itself (the Lap Engine). It probably became general with the double beam engine as sandwiching the flywheel between two beams precluded the overhung gear attached to the crank shaft. The influence of the patent Fairbairn arrangement of double-beat drop valves and cam gear was also very limited. The oft-cited example of the Saltaire engines has to be qualified. A preserved book of indicator diagrams (now believed to be held by Bradford Industrial Museum) shows deteriorating performance and after a relatively short life the cylinders were replaced.7 Double-beat drop valves were only common in mine winding and pumping engines until the modern versions were introduced into textile mill engines following continental practice at the end of the century. The cam operated valve gear was tried by other builders with limited success and not until the internal combustion engine led the way was it briefly applied to steam engines.
Henry Ford’s 1928 English Holiday Part 1 – In Search of Newcomen Engines
Published in The International Journal for the History of Engineering & Technology, 2018
Morton started by building a strong replacement timber bridge complete with narrow gauge tramway over the River Medlock. The bridge was some 100 ft. long and 18 ft. above normal water level. The height above the normal river level turned out to be essential when a storm washed away some the timbers during construction.41 Morton and his team now started to clear the site around the engine’s remains. The 28″ i.d. cylinder was first freed and the foundations of the engine revealed. To his delight much of the valve gear was recovered. During September the stonework was numbered, coloured and measured drawings prepared by a Mr Cecil Gill ready for dismantling and shipment to the USA. Hall had told him that much of the engine had fallen down the mine staff. Morton tried to grapple for parts of the beam and the chain but this failed. The shaft was then pumped out and any remains retrieved. In a photograph in the Chetham archive Morton is shown apparently being lowered down the shaft on the end of a crane jib. The many components were boxed up and photographs of this stage are in the Higson Collection in Oldham Local Studies Library and some of which are reproduced in Champness. They were then send via the shipping firm Stewart & Esplen Ltd to the Ford works in New Jersey having received special custom clearance and then on to Dearborn.42 Some of the stone work survives in what is now an area of parkland. Although Morton removed most of the surviving engine’s components although recent archaeological investigations of the site have found a number of small parts that he missed (Figures 4 and 5).43
Building a 21st Century Newcomen Engine
Published in The International Journal for the History of Engineering & Technology, 2018
The first Newcomen engines comprise a low-pressure boiler located beneath an open top vertical cylinder. A piston is suspended by chain from one end of an overhead rocking beam, operating vertically within the cylinder and is controlled by self-acting valve gear. This valve gear controls both steam entry and water injection into the cylinder. Fastened at the rocking beam’s far end, and extending over the mine shaft, chains and rods connect to pumps that are located in the shaft (Figure 2).