Clerk's Work On The Internal Combustion Engine
Dugald Clerk was the author of a comprehensive book covering the development of the oil and gas engine from its early inception, and including details of his own work in this area. The first edition was produced in 1886, and the notes here are taken from the 7th edition, revised and updated up to 1896.
Clerk began work on his own engine designs in October 1876. Up to this time the commercial engines available had been the Lenoir engine from 1860, which worked on a double-acting 2-stroke cycle, but spent half of each stroke drawing gas into the cylinder. The Hugon engine was a slightly improved version, but both were quite inefficient (95 and 85 cubic feet of gas per HP hour respectively), neither used compression. The next commercial engine available (from 1867) was the Otto & Langen free piston engine, which used atmospheric pressure for the power stroke, and had half the gas consumption of the Lenoir and Hugon engines. It was in May 1876 that Otto developed his engine using the single-acting 4-stroke cycle with compression in the cylinder. Clerk decided to develop an engine using compression, but with the 2-stroke cycle, as he could see benefit to weight and smoothness of operation through having twice as many power strokes.
Clerk initially experimented with engines that "were identical to the Lenoir in idea, but with separate compression and a novel system of ignition", one of these was exhibited in July 1879. However it was not until the end of 1880 that he succeeded in producing the Clerk engine operating on the 2-stroke cycle, which became the commercial product. Clerk states "The Clerk engine at present in the market was the first to succeed in introducing compression of this type, combined with ignition at every revolution ; many attempts had previously been made by other inventors, including Mr. Otto and the Messrs. Crossley, but all had failed in producing a marketable engine. It is only recently that the Messrs. Crossley have made the Otto engine in its twin form and so succeeded in getting impulse at every turn."
In "Gas and Oil Engines", Clerk refers to the significant earlier gas engine patents of Barnett in 1838 and Wright in 1833.
Read more about this topic: Dugald Clerk
Famous quotes containing the words clerk, work, internal, combustion and/or engine:
“A clerk ther was of Oxenford also
That unto logyk hadde longe ygo.
As leene was his hors as is a rake,
And he nas nat right fat, I undertake,
But looked holwe, and therto sobrely.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)
“Making a logging-road in the Maine woods is called “swamping” it, and they who do the work are called “swampers.” I now perceived the fitness of the term. This was the most perfectly swamped of all the roads I ever saw. Nature must have coöperated with art here.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Personal change, growth, development, identity formation—these tasks that once were thought to belong to childhood and adolescence alone now are recognized as part of adult life as well. Gone is the belief that adulthood is, or ought to be, a time of internal peace and comfort, that growing pains belong only to the young; gone the belief that these are marker events—a job, a mate, a child—through which we will pass into a life of relative ease.”
—Lillian Breslow Rubin (20th century)
“Him the Almighty Power
Hurld headlong flaming from th’ Ethereal Skie
With hideous ruine and combustion down
To bottomless perdition, there to dwell
In Adamantine Chains and penal Fire,
Who durst defie th’ Omnipotent to Arms.
Nine times the Space that measures Day and Night
To mortal men, he with his horrid crew
Lay vanquisht, rowling in the fiery Gulfe”
—John Milton (1608–1674)
“The machine unmakes the man. Now that the machine is perfect, the engineer is nobody. Every new step in improving the engine restricts one more act of the engineer,—unteaches him.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)