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Title: |
1894 Article-Clerk Gas Engine Co., Gas Engine |
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Source: |
Proceedings of the American Gas Institute, V 10 #2, Apr 1894, Appendix pgs. 43-44 |
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Insert Date: |
2/23/2014 8:08:36 PM |
The Clerk gas engine is of more than usual interest to the gas fraternity, in having been taken up by one of the well-known members of our Association, who, a firm believer in the worth of gas engines, made a strong effort to introduce it upon the American market.
The engine itself is after the design of Mr. Dugald Clerk, of England (1881), who has, as is well known, given a great deal of study to the proper design of the theoretically correct gas engine. Acting on the basis of an impulse every revolution, the Otto cycle was abandoned, a separate auxiliary “displacer" cylinder being used, with piston driven by a rod from a pin or one of the fly-wheel spokes. The charge, measured and drawn into the displaced cylinder, is slightly compressed and then fed into the power cylinder, driving out the products of combustion ahead of it, and is finally compressed by the power piston. This engine is usually accepted as the type of the class of one-cycle gas engines using a separate compression cylinder. The ignition is by flame, a small slide valve driven by eccentric controlling it, and also cutting off the gas supply as needed. No gears are used; admission and exhaust valves are of poppet type.
In competition with the Otto it showed very efficient and satisfactory results, and, having an impulse every revolution, promised to be an important factor in the gas engine business. Mr. W. W. Goodwin, being well impressed with it, took its control for the American market, and in 1883 an engine was on exhibition at the New York American Institute Fair. Tests in '85 with the Otto, under the same auspices, indicated a slight superiority in gas consumed for effective work, in regularity of firing, etc. The comparative results appear in the advertisement of the Clark Gas Engine Co., in the American Gas Light Journal, under date of 5, 17, '86. Upwards of too engines ranging from 5 to 3o H. P. were put upon the market, but mechanical weakness of design appeared in the English pattern (which had been represented as perfect) in the hard, matter-of-fact, every-day use, which ultimately put the engine in bad repute. Mr. Goodwin at once re-designed the detail, covering an improved governor, a self-starter, less weight and noise and the mechanical defects alluded to, but the engine had by that time gotten a bad name from those first installed, and that, coupled with the illness of Mr. Goodwin, preventing active push, has practically caused it to drop entirely out of the market. A description of the engine may be found in the American Gas Light Journal for Nov. 17, '84; also in full detail in the text books referred to in this paper. |
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1894 Clerk Gas Engine Co., Gas Engine
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