A Text-Book on Gas, Oil, and Air Engines (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from A Text-Book on Gas, Oil, and Air Engines<br><br>This Edition has been brought up to date by the late Mr. Bryan Donkin's Secretary, who desires to take this opportunity of gratefully acknowledging the invaluable assistance rendered by scientific friends, both in England and abroad. Special thanks are due to Professors Hudson Beare, Meyer, Capper, Hutton (of Columbia University), and Boulvin; to Messrs. Dugald Clerk, Bellamy, Cecil Cochrane, Diesel, the Secretary of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and others; and also to various English and foreign engineering firms, for valuable information courteously afforded.<br><br>The chief changes to note since the publication of the Third Edition are, firstly, the increase in size and efficiency of internal combustion engines. Motors driven with cheap power and blast-furnace gases are now built up to 2,000 to 4,000 H.P., and among the pioneers in this movement are the Cockerill firm at Seraing, in whose hands a French engine, the Simplex, has become one of the leading types. The utilisation of blast-furnace gases has been rapidly developed on the Continent. For the large powers now required, double-acting engines have come much to the front, and the great heat developed is carried off by an efficient system of water cooling. Special attention has been given to the internal working of gas and oil engines, and compression pressures ranging from 160 to 850 lbs. per square inch have been realized, with a corresponding increase in the heat efficiency. The regulation of the speed has been carefully studied, and large gas engines are now governed with as much precision as the best steam engines, the "hit-and-miss" principle being no longer applied to any but small motors. In oil engines it is still usual.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.