US686554A - Speed-regulator for explosive-engines. - Google Patents

Description

, Patented Nov.vl2, I90l. F. B. STEARNS. 4 SPEED REGULATOR FDR EXPLOSIVE ENGINES.

(Application filed Oct. 9, 1899.)

2 Sheet's$heet L (No Model.)

VVizlnesses,

Paten ced Nov. :2, mm.

1 F. B. STEARNS.

' SPEED REGULATOR FOR EXPLOSIVE ENGINES.

(Application filed Oct. 9. 1899.)

2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

(No Model.)

. In venio r,

Frank .B. Szearns, .9

.AZtta rrz e3.

FRANKB. STEARNS, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO;

SPEED -REGULATOR FOR EXPLOSQt E- ENGINES.

$PECIFIGATION forining part of Letters Patent No. 686,5 54, dated November 12, 1901.

Application tiled October 9, 1899.

T at 1071 0711, it may concern- Be it known that I, FRANK l3. Srnnnns, a citizen of the United States, residingat Cleveland, in the countyof Cuyahoga and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in-Automatic Feeds for Explosive-Engines, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to explosive-engines which use liquid fuel, such as gasolcne, and is especially adapted to gasolene-engines of the automobile type. 4

The object of my invention. is to provide means for regulating the supply of fuel in proportion to the speed required of the engine without changing to any undesirable extent the relative proportions of air and vapor in the mixture which is drawn into the cylinder and ignited. ,The amount of work performed by an explosive-engine is in direct proportion to the number of explosions. lhe amount of fuel required is also in direct proportion to the number of explosions. Therefore a feeding device that will supply fuel in proportion to the number of explosions will tend to keep the engine running at its greatest efficiency at any speed within reasonable limits. The invention being an automatic fuel-feeding device is not concerned with speed-governing save only to the er:- tent of supplying sufficient fuel to produce full and effective'explosions in the engine at whatever speed it may be running, and it is .obvious that any suitable speed-governor may be employed in connection therewith if the class of work performed by the engine requires it.

To these ends the invention consists of the features, arrangements, and combinations hereinafter described and claimed, an embodiment thereof being illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a plan View of an explosiveengine equipped with the automatic feed. Fig. 2 is a side elevation, and Fig.3 is a partialend View of the same. Fig. 4 is an elevation, partly in section, of the feed-valve, mixer, andjvaporizing-chamber.

The reference letter a indicates the cylinder of an explosive engine, and b is the crankshaft. A centrifugal regulator is provided, which may be placed on the end of the crank- Serial No. 733,018. (No model.)

The regulator is similar to the shaft, and centrifugal weights h h,'jointed together and hinged atone end to the collar gand at the other end to a loose collar 2'. It

will readily be understood that. as the speed of the engine increases theweights h h are thrown outward, thereby sliding the loose collar 1' toward the fastened collar 9, and as the speed diminishes the centrifugal force acting upon the weights decreases and permits the loose collar to recede from the fast collar. Upon the loose collar and provided with suitable thrust-bearings is mounted a collar 76, having apertures to receive pins in the forked end of the lever j. The lever j is pivoted to a short arm I, which arm is pivoted at its other end to a bracket m, attached to the engine-frame, so that the forked end of the lever is free to move in a direction parallel to the regulator-shaft.

To the inlet-port n of the engine is attached a pipe communicating with the bottom of a vaporizing-chamber 0, which may be' provided with wire screens, as at 10, or otherzsuitable devices to assistin breaking up and evaporating the liquid fuel and thoroughly mixing it with air. Communicating with and projecting above the vaporizing-chamber is a mixing-tube g, which is open at the top for the admission of air and may also be supplied with openings near the top for the same purpose. The liquid-fuel-supply pipe, having a shut-0d valve 1', is fastened across the top of the tube q and is provided with an outlet 5, extending down into said tube and having a valve 25, preferably of the style known as a needle-valve, the stem of which is screwthreaded in the pipe and has secured to its outer end the slotted lever-arm 21., as plainly shown in Fig. at.

A rod o,providedat each end with ball or other suitable joints,connects the leverjwith an adjustable block to, fitted in the slot of the arm a and adapted to be firmly clamped in any position of the length thereof to suit the con- Y vditions of service.

force set up in the regulator and serves to return the lever to the position shown in the drawings, thereby closing the fuel-valve i when the engine is stopped.

The inlet-valve y and exhaust valve .2 may be operated in anysuitable manner, but said inlet-valve is herein shown designed to Work automatically against a spring, which is perhaps the most common method.

The engine having been started it is evident that the fuel-valve will be maintained at the proper opening to supply a sufficient quantity of fuel for any rate of speed within reasonable limits. When the speed is altered by the application of a load or by other means, the valve will immediately adjust itself so as to supply more or less fuel, according as the,

speed of the engine is increased ordiminished, thus keeping the relative proportions of air and gas in the mixturesufficiently constant. Various modifications can be made in the details of my invention without departing from the principles thereof and other modes of applying it may be employed, since,

Having described its application as above, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The combination of a shaft driven by an explosive-engine having weights attached to it adapted to be thrown outward by the centrifugal force due to the revolution of the shaft, a lever pivoted to the engine the front end of which is arranged to be moved along the axis of the said shaft by the outward movement of the weights, a fuel-supply valve provided with a stem carrying an arm to which is attached an adjustable block, a spring for closing said valve, a suitable connection between said block and the rear end of saidlever, and suitable means for vaporizmoved along the axis of said shaft by the outward movement of the weights, connecting mechanism capable of adjustment for difierent conditions of service between the rearlend of said lever and the arm on said valve-stem, and a spring arranged to work against the said centrifugal force and gradually close said valve as the speed of the en'- gine diminishes, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses, at Cleveland, Ohio, October 5, 1899.

R. M. OWEN, S. RAY FRALICK.

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