US1282856A - Internal-combustion engine. - Google Patents

Description

A. C. KENWORTHY. INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE. APPLICATION FILED JAN. 22, 1911.

Patented Get.- 29, 1918.

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APPLICATION FILED JMLZZ. 1917 1,282,856.,

Patented, Oct. 29', 1918".

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Patented 0st, 29, 1918;

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ALVIN KENWORTHY ALVIN C. KENVIORTHY, F 'WALLA WALLA, WASHINGTON.

INTEENAL-CQMBUSTION ENGINE.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALviN C. :KEN woirrrir,

a citizen of the United States, residing at Walla WValla, in the county of \Valla \Valla and State of lVashington, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Internal-Combustion Engines, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

This invention relates to internal combustion engines and particularly to engines of I this character having a double cylinder.

The general object of this invention is to provide an engine of this clfaracter having high power and capable of employinghighly explosive gases as a motive force.

A further object is to provide an engine which shall be perfectly balanced and in which the strain due to explosion is not resisted by the frame of the engine or any portion thereof. 4

A. further object is to provide an. engine in which one or more explosive gases may be used or in which two or more explosive gases may be combined in the explosion chamber. A further object is to provide a governor which shall be simple in construction and positive, effective and quick in its action.

Still another object is to provide means whereby steam may be carried into the firing or explosion chamber whereby to form a water gas of a highly explosive character.

Other objects will appear in the course of the following description.

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein Figure 1 is a top plan view partly in section of an engine constructed in accordance with my invention;

Fig. 2 is aside clevat u of the construction shown in 1;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged transverse sectional view through the firing chamber and valve chambers thereof;

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary sectional view through a fly wheel showing part of the governor mechanism;

Fig. 5 is adiagrammatic perspective view of the valve operating mechanism;

Fig. 6 are sectional views through the head 56 showing the manner in which the head controls the movement of the valve; and

Fig. 7 is a sectional view through the shaft 56 and the head or disk 31 showing the yoke for shifting the disk 31.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented loin-2Q 11918..

Application filed January 22, 1917. Serial No. 143,865.

Referring to these drawings, 10 designates the bed of the engine of any suitable char acter. Mounted upon the bed in any suitable manner are the opposed cylinders 11 and 12 with the intermediate explosion chamber'13.

Extending transversely across the bed and mounted in suitable bearings at one end thereof is the shaft 14: which is provided with the two cranks 15 and an intermediate crank 16. These cranked portions 15 and 16 have the same radius. Slidingly mounted in the bed of the engine or in suitable guides is the cross head 17 to which is connected the piston rod 18 carrying the piston 19 which operates in the cylinder 11 and this cross head 17 is connected to the cranks15 bymeans of the connecting rods 20. Operating within the cylinder 12 is the piston 21 which is connected to the crank 16 by means of the connecting rod 22.

Mounted upon the shaft 1 1 are the oppo sitely disposed balance wheels 23 and 24 and the pulley 25 whereby power may be taken from the shaft 1 1. Also operatively supported upon the bed is a countershaft 26 carrying upon it the cams 27 and 28 and driven by a gear wheel 29 meshing with a able manner so that as the speed of the engine increases, the balls will fly outward under centrifugal force, the arms 32 will be drawn outward, and the disk 31 be shifted longitudinally on the hub of the wheel 24 in the direction of the arrow, Fig. 4. Springs act to retract the governor balls toward the axial center of the wheel 24. The disk 31 is operatively. connected as will be later described to valve governing mechanism.

The firing chamber 13 consists of a rectangular casing having heads 36 to which the ends of the cylinders 11 and 12 are operativcly connected, this tiring chamber being divided into three parts by the upper and lower partitions 37 and The partition 38 extends only partly across the firing chamber and incloses a valve chamber 39. A spark plug 40 or other igniting device opens into the explosion chamber. The partition 37 with a partition 41 defines an inlet valve chamber 42 and an exhaust valve chamber 43. Operating within the valve chamber 39 is an inlet valve 44 which is normally held to its seat by a spring' 45 and operating in the chamber 42 is an inlet valve 46 held to its seat by a spring 47. Operating within the valve chamber 43 is an outlet valve 48 held to its seat by a spring 49. For the purpose of operating the valve 48 and the valve 46, I provide the rockers 50 and 51 respectively which are pivotally mounted intermediate their ends in any suitable manner and which at their rear ends are angularly bent to extend beneath the rods of the respective valves. When these rockers are rocked they will cause the opening of the valves and t e rockers are oscillated by means of the cams 27 and 28 beneath which the ends of the rocker arms extend. The valve 44 is operated by a relatively short rocker arm 52 pivotally supported. upon a bracket 53 extending upward from the explosion chamber and this rocker arm 52 is connected at its forward end by a link 54 to the rocker arm 50 so that the rocker arms 50 and 52 will oscillate together. It will be noted, however, that while the link 54 is connected to the forward end of the rod 50 it is connected to the rear end of the rod 52 so that a depression of the valve engaging end of the arm 50 will cause an elevation of the valve engaging end of the arm 52, and that an elevation of the rocker arm 50, which will act to open the valve 46, will cause a de pression of the valve engagingend of the arm 52 which will cause an opening of the valve 44 and that the valves 46 and 44 will open together.

The means whereby the engine is governed comprises a rod 55 having a slotted head 56 at one end, this head being: grooved upon its under face as at 57 and the upper end of the valve stem or valve 44 resting in this groove. The head 56 has, therefore, sliding engagement with this stem. Mounted upon the frame of the engine in any suitable manner is a lever 58 having the form generally of a bell crank lever, one arm of this lever being connected to a yoke 59 which partly embraces the grooved disk 31 and is operatively connected to an ordinary shipper ring disposed in the groove of the disk. It will thus be obvious that when the disk 31 is shifted inward on the hub of Wheel 24, the inwardly extending arm of the bell crank lever 58 will be shifted toward the cylinders of the engine and when the disk 31 is shifted outward the lever 58 will be shifted in the opposite direction. This lever 58 is pivotally connected to the rod 55. It will thus be seen that when the engine is running too fast, the governor balls will act to shift the rod 55 toward the crank shaft and when the engine is running too slow, the retraction. of the governor balls under the action. of the spring 35 will cause the rod to shift so as to carry 60 which is disposed immediately over the lower wall of the wedge-shaped head 56. It will now be obvious (see Fig. 6) that when the wedge-shaped head 56 is shifted to the left in Fig. 2, the rocker arm 52 will operatively engage sooner with the valve stem or valve 44 and depress it farther than it will when the rod 55 and head 56 is shifted to the right (as it is in Fig. 6) or reversely to the arrow in Fig. 2, and thus what may be termed the auxiliary gas entering the engine by way of the valve member 39 will be increased or decreased and the opening of the valve advanced or retarded and thus the governing of the engine is accomplished. It is obvious that a like governor may be applied to the stem of valve 46, that is that a wedge-shaped head 56 may be disposed between the stem of the valve 46 and the corresponding rocker arm 50 and thus both valves be governed. I have not illustrated this construction, however, as it is an obvious one. It will be seen that the action of the governor is to push the wedge-shaped head 56 farther in between the arm and the valve stem when the engine slacks down in its speed so that the rocker arm 52 will open the valve sooner and wider when more power is needed and that when the engine is running too fast. the wedge 56 will be drawn outward so that the rocker arm will push the valve down later and to a less eX- tent. It is to be understood again that the governing mechanism may 'be used on both of the valves 46 and 44 or on either one of use if desired two different kinds of fuel,

one kind of fuel entering the valve chamber 39, the other entering the valve chamber 42. I can also by means of the pipe 61 Introduce steam or other vapor orgas into the valve chamber 42, mixed or combined with the other fuel entering this chamber.

l/Vhile I do not wish to limit myself to any particular gas or explosive vapor, yet by allowing a small amount of hydrogen gas to enter the chamber 39 with a suitable amount of air or pure oxygen taken into the chamber 42 and mixed with steam from the pipe 61.,a very powerful explosive gaedBo is secured. Preferably the hydrogen gas is secured by decomposing water by electrolysis the water so used being taken from the engine jacket, carried into a. suitable receptacle and there mixed with chen'iicals, as tor instance sulfuric acid to give it conductivity. As the hydrogen and ()Xygen gases will be carried to separate valve chambers through separate pipes and valve systems, there will be no danger of baekfiring.

1t willbe seen that my engine has no cylinder head, that the explosionoccurs in the space between the two pistons, and that thus the full force of the explosion is delivered directly to the crank shaft instead ol. against the cylinder head and so to the frame of the engine. Such a construction permits of a higlr explosiye being used. It will further be seen that the governor is instantaneous in its action and positive in its action and controls the feed of fuel right at the point of explosion. governor controls the valve directly at the point of explosion, it will be obvious that the action of the governor will be very quick and positive. A thumb screw 62, together with the springs make the governor very easy to adjust and very sensitive to speed.

While I have illustrated an embodiment of my invention which I believe to be particularly effective, yet it will be obvious that many changes might be made within the scope of the appended claims without departing from the spn-lt of the invention and that the principle of the invention may be Inasmuch as the.

ing inlet valves disposed in said chambers and having stems extending in opposite directions, an exhaust valve chamber, an exhaust valve therein, a crank shaft, pistons in the cylinders o )eratively connected to the crank shaft, a eountershaft having cams, rocker arms operated by said cams and respcctively engaging the valve stems of the exhaust and one of the inlet valves, a rocker arm having one end disposed across the valve stem of the other inlet valve, a detachable link connection between the first named rocker arm operating one inlet valve and the second named rocker arm, and governor operated means for advancing or retarding the time of engagement between the last named rocke' arm and its valve stem and increasing or decreasing the amount of movement given to the valve stem by said' shaped member having av longitudinally extending groove on its under face receiving the stem of the inlet valve and having a relatively high laterally opening groove upon its side face, within which the extremity of the actuating member ope ates.

In testimony whereof I hereunto aflix my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

ALVIN C. KENVVORTHY.

Witnesses H. M. READ, LEON B. Knnwoa'rnv

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