US1450250A - Internal-combustion engine, method of and means for feeding the same - Google Patents

Description

Apr. 3, 1923, 1,450,250

- D. COLE INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE, METHOD OF AND MEANS FOR FEEDING THE SAME Filed Apr. 4, 1919 4 sheetssheet 1 I N N fmewr Apr. 3, 1923.

D. COLE I INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE, METHOD OF AND MEANS FOR FEEDING THE SAME Filed Apr. 4, 1919 4 sheets-sheet 2 4 sheets-sheet 5 4 A 5 w w e w an. 0 a o I 1 2 m 5; 03 k an 55 m n i F A w. wag m .y D

D. COLE INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE, METHOD OF AND MEANS FOR FEEDING THE SAME Filed Apr. 4, 1919 Apr. 3, 1923,

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Apr. 3, 1923, 1,450,250

D. COLE INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE, METHOD OF AND MEANS FOR FEEDING THE SAME Filed Apr. 4, 1919 Asheets-sheet 4' Patented Apr. 3, 11923.

UNETED STATES team ears-Mr crates.

DON COLE, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TC JOHN A. DIENNER, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

INTERNAL-CO'llIIBU'S 'JJION ENGINE, METHOD OF AND MEANS FOE. FEEDING THE SAME.

Application filed April 4, 1919. Serial No. 287,452.

T 0 all whom it may concern: Be it known that I, DON Come, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Internal-Combustion Engines, ethods of and Means for Feeding the Same, of which the following is a full, clear, concise, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification.

My invention relates. to internal combustion engines and particularly to a novel method of and means for burning fuel of relatively high boiling point in such an enine. g The use of highgrade gasoline for fuel in internal combustlonengines has in the past been attended with great commercial success and has proven to be very popular.

The insufliciency of the amount of such fuel available has forced the use of fuel involving constitutents of much lower grades of volatility. Consequently the devices depending upon vaporization by spraying such fuels into a current of air as in the modern carburetor, have been subject to conditions for which they are not inherently well adapted. The general result has been unsatisfactory due to difiiculty in starting, the loss in power due to imperfect combustion, and the fouling of the cylinders due to,

carbonization.

Keroseneas a fuel has been proposed and tried for a long time but so far very little, if any, cominercial success has attended such attempts to use it, so far as I have'been able to ascertain.

Kerosene has many things which seem to make it desirable as a fuel. It contains more heat units per pound than does gasoline. It does not vaporize away from tanks and containers and is not so apt to cause accidental explosions. Above all, it is. cheap and plentiful.

It is the purpose of my invention to provide a novel method of the means'for burning kerosene or other liquid fuels in a modern internal combustion engine, particularly of the automobile type.

In my co-pending applications, Serial No. 253,140 and Serial No. 253,141, I have gine. Consequently it is feasible to convert almost any modern four cylinder engine into an engine of my improved type with minor changes only. An important advantage is that an engine thus equipped is adapted to burn not only kerosene, but gasoline may be used without change.

More particularly I provide a spraying nozzle or jet operated by suction to atomize the fuel which is fed from a constant level reservoir. At the same time a small amount of air is introduced thru the spraying or atomizing nozzle to atomize the fuel as finely as possible. This amount of air is small as compared to the amount required to support combustion and it is not intended to satisfy the suction which is created in the intake manifoldby the individual suction strokes of the engine. The end of the intake manifold is provided with a rotary valve rotating, in the case of a four cylinder engine, at the speed of the crank shaft. This valve has a passageway thru it opening twice for each revolution in a four cylinder engine so that the valve opens the intake to the atmosphere for each intake stroke of the engine. This opening is for only a part of the complete stroke and occurs only at the end thereof. The result is that the fuel is first atomized and subjected to reduced pressure in the intake manifold, and then toward the end of the suction stroke the air valve is thrown wide open, causing a sudden rush of air to sweep the contents of the intake manifold intothe c linder, after which the intake valve closes sharply. The rotary valve also closes promptly and prepares the intake manifold for the next suction stroke of the succeeding cylinder. Owing t0 Ver high suction on the jet during the first half of the intake stroke, the fuel is drawn into the intake and atomized by the suction. It can be seen that after the opening of the rotary valve the suction drops very decidedly in the intake pipe. This prevents the feeding of practically any more fuel into the intake of the engine.

In ofder to make clear to those skilled in the art how to construct and practice my invention, 1 shall now describe the same in connection with the accompanying draw- F igure 1 is a side elevational view of a four cylinder engine on the valve side of the same, illustrating my invention Figure 2 is a central vertical sectional view of the same;

Figure 3 is a diagram of the timmg of the valves;

Figure & is a sectional view of the valve and fuel spraying device taken on the line H of Figure 5; and

Figure 5 is a transverse sectional View taken on the line 5-5 of Figure 4;

Figures 6, 7 and 8 are diagrams of the intake stroke showing the position of the parts at 10 from the top of the intake stroke, 90 and 190 respectively; and

Figure 9 is a cross-section of the fuel atomizing device,

The engine which I have illustrated may be considered as typical of any four cycle. four cylinder engine. I have shown the same as comprising the cylinder castings 1 and the crank casing 2, which are suitably bolted together by means of the flanges 3.

The cylinder casting 1 comprises a. plurality of cylinders 4 having suitable water jackets 5. Each cylinder is provided with the usual piston 6 connected by a connecting rod 7 to the crank shaft 8.

Each cylinder is provided with a suitable exhaust valve 9 and intake valve 10, controlling the exhaust from and intake to the cylinders 4. A suitable cam shaft 11, driven at half of the speed of the crank shaft 8 operates the valves to control the working of the engine.

The exhaust passage 13 is connected by a suitable exhaust manifold to the exhaust pipe of the engine. An intake manifold 15 is connected to the intake ports of the cyl-' inders, and is also provided with a flange 16, such as have been heretofore provided for the attachment of a carburetor where gasoline is employed as fuel. The exhaust manifold is provided with an envelope or heating loop about the intake manifold as shown at 17. This feature is not essential but aids in vaporizing and mixing the fuel.

The intake manifold 15 is providedwith a suitable throttle valve 18 for controlling the rate of fuel feed to the cylinders and for controlling the speed of the engine.

The features above described may all be stock parts of engines now known, with the possible difference that the cam shaft 11 is timed for the particular use to which this engine is adapted.

The end of the intake 15 is closed by means of a valve casing member l9, which is provided with a suitable bolting flange 20 secured to the flange 16. This valve casing member has a rotary barrel 21 which is adapted to house a suitable rotary valve 22, shown in detail in Figure 4. The barrel member 21 has a cylindrical inner surface within which the rotary valve member 22 fits closely. The ends of the barrel member are closed by the heads 23 and 24 which also have bearings 25 for the shaft 26, upon which the valve member 22 is mounted. This valve member is preferably made of a pair of end members 27 and 28, mounted on the shaft 26 and having a sleeve 29 mounted be tween the head members. The sleeve is slotted thru diametrically so as to provide ports 30. The barrel member 21 is similarly provided with an intake port 31 opening to atmosphere, and a somewhat restricted port 32 which opens into the intake passageway 33, which in turn communicates with the intake manifold 15. The restricted port 32 serves to concentrate the force of the air entering therethru for enhancing the aspirrating and atomizing effect produced on fuel discharged from the nozzle 35. The body member 19 is drilled and tapped as shown at 34 to receive the fuel feeding nozzle 35. This fuel feeding nozzle 35 comprises a hollow threaded sleeve member 36 and an axial tube or sleeve 37 which is open at its lower end 38 to atmosphere, this nozzle just terminating at the inner surface of the wall of the valve casing 19, so that fuel will be readily picked off from the nozzle. The outer threaded sleeve member 36 has a head 39 at its lower end which is adapted to clamp the extension 40 of the float chamber bowl'tl against the bottom of the body member 19. The threaded sleeve member 36 has perforations 41' at its lower end to place the interior of the same in communication with the fuel passageway 42, which fuel passageway communicates with the interior of the float chamber 41. A valve a3 controls the feed of liquid fuel from the float chamber 41 to the nozzle 35. The inner. sleeve 37: is perforated as shown at 44 so thatsuction upon the end of the nozzle causes the liquid fuel to rise within the annular space between thethrcaded sleeve 36 and the axial tube 37, and to discharge thru the opening or openings 44 into the interior of the axial tube 37, causing atomization of the liquid fuel as -.it is discharged into the intake passageway 33.

The valve 43 is preferably, tho not necessarily, connected to the throttle valve 18 as by means of the connection 45 so that the amount of fuel that can be fed to the nozzle 35 is reduced as the throttle valve 18 is closed.

The valve shaft 26 1s drlven in unison with the crank shaft 8 by suitable gearing,

Assuming as is shown in Figure 6 that the piston is beginning the downward stroke and has reached a point 10 degrees away from the top, as is indicated in the diagram of- Figure 3, the exhaust valve 9 has just closed and the intake valve 10 has just been opened. The rotary air intake valve 22 is at this time closed and remains closed until the crank shaft assumes a position approximately 90 past top center as shown in Figure 7. The atomizing' conduit 37 is open and kerosene is being drawn from the float chamber and is projected in a fine spray into the intake manifold which is immediately placed under a relatively high suction, so that the particles of kerosene are vaporized to as great an extent as possible, and are subjected to an act-ion of atomization by the high velocity of the air thru the conduit 37 As the piston 6 descends sufficient fuel is drawn into the conduit 37 to furnish fuel for one power stroke. The rotary intake valve 22 is opened when the-crank stands at about 90 past top center, as shown in F igure 7. As the intake and manifold 15 are under a relatively high suction, and as the area of port opening is quite large, the

charge of fuel which was held within the intake manifold is suddenly packed intothe cylinder with sufiicient air to support combustion and thereafter the intake valve-10 is closed. effect on thel timing of the fuel feed, but merely is employed as a meteringelement. Theintakevalve 10 is closed preferably 10 deg. after the bot-tom ofthe stroke as shown in Figure 8, and this coincides with the opening of the intake and closure of exhaust in another cylinder. The rotary intake valve 22 is closed at about the same'time so that the intake pipe 15 may again be subjected to suction from the next cylinder. After the intake valve 10 is closed the piston moves upward to compress the charge on the u wardstroke, as is customary. The 7 charge is then forced downwar When the crank has turned through substantially 135 deg. from the top of its explosion stroke the exhaust valve 9 is opened and remains open during the rest of the power stroke and thru the The nozzle control valve 43 has no ignited and the piston is canl shaft, intake an succeeding exhaust stroke which extendsthru the upwardstroke and 10 deg. past the top of said upward stroke, or a total of substantially 235 deg.

It will now be apparent that I have provided a novel method of feeding an internal combustion engine which produces ideal conditions for atomization of the fuel, mixing of'the charge, and efficient combustion of the same. In addition, it is possible to control the speed of the engine by the throttle valve, as is practiced in the modern automobile engine.

The air intake opening thru the valve may be made as large as desired so that ample mixture may be provided at each stroke.

The atomizing nozzle 35 is in fact a small carburetor or carbureting device for supplying an over-rich mixture of air and atomized fuel which may be controlled by a throttle valve instead of the needle valve 43. In this event the throttle '18 may be placed between the air intake, valve and the nozzle 35 so that the two sources of entering air may be throttled simultaneously.

It is obvious that to permit either joint or independent control of the time of openingof the respective valves so that the engine may be effectively throttled to take in less explosive mixture for each stroke, or so that adjustment may be made between the amount of atomized fuel. injected into the intake manifold and the amount of air thereafter thrown into the same, independent control of the nozzle 35 and valve 22 may be had.

However, the construction which I have illustrated shows the fundamental features of operation of my invention which is the basis,

of all other modifications or improvements which I have above mentioned. I find'that in operation the engine constructed according to my invention operates without the objectionable features heretofore encountered in burning kerosene. The'violent and uncontrollable explosions which have previously been encountered in experimenting with kerosene as a fuel have been totally eliminated and a smooth uiet running engine has been produced. have made tests of theengine to determine the power of the same in comparison with the power of the engine operated with gasoline and the proper carburetor according to the prior art and I find that the performance of the engine, according to my invention, is within one or two percent of the performance upon gasoline with regard to the actual'power developed onthe test block.

I do not intend to be limited tails illustrated I claim': In combination, an engine having the usual main shaft, en ine cylinder, piston, if exhaust valves, and

to the deand described..

a cam on said cam shaft for positively actuating said intake valve, an intake manifold extending upwardly along said engine cylinder and communicating With said intake valve, said intake manifold comprising acylindrical valve chamber at its lower end, said valve chamber having an air port extending longitudinally thereof and opening into the bottom portion of said chamber, a cylindrical rotary intake valve in said valve chamber, said valve having a pair of diametrically opposed slots constituting a passageway therethrough for registration with said air port, a chain for driving said rotary intake valve in synchronism with said main shaft, a fuel nozzle discharging into said intake manifold in close proximity to said rotary intake valve, said fuel nozzle comprising an outer sleeve threadinginto said manifold and an. inner spaced concen tric tube extending through said sleeve, the bore in said sleeve and the bore in said tube constituting tvvo separate passages, means for admitting fuel to one of said passages and a restricted volume of air to the other of said passages, said rotary intake valve discharging into said manifold at a point immediately anterior to said nozzle whereby the volume of air admitted through said intake valve is directed into immediate contact with said nozzle in its passage upwardly through said manifold, a restriction in said manifold for accelerating the flow of air past said nozzle, a throttle valve in said manifold, and means operating conjointly with the throttle valve for metering the discharge of fuel from said nozzle.

In Witness whereof I hereunto subscribe my name this 2 day of April, A. D. 1919.

DON COLE.

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