• Oil-cooled Pistons for Small High-speed Engines
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A Resume of Patent Specifications ThaiHave Recently Been Published
WHILST oil-cooled pistons are fairly VY general in large oil engines, such as those used for marine work, the principle has not, so far, been adopted for the smaller high-speed type of unit. A design suitable for such engines is shown in patent No, 555,091, by Sulzer Freres S.A., Winterthur Switzerland.
The patentee states that, whilst in a slow-speed, large engine, it is a-eomparatively simple matterto find room for supply and return conduits, in a small engine this is impracticable. It is, however, possible' to provide the supply which, after traversing the cooling spaces, can be discharged into the crankcase. This practice, however, leads to over-oiling of the pistons, but the present. invention is directed towards overcoming this trouble and so rendering a one-pipe system practicable. A feature of the scheme is the use of a slowly rotating piston, which is claimed to prevent cylinder scoring, and to create a high polish on the working faces.
The connecting rod is fitted with a ball-end which acts as a gudgeon pin and permits rotation, The cooling oil. is supplied from the big-end lubricating system, the oil being forced through a drilling in the connecting rod to the ban-end and into a passage (1),whence it .travels to the cooling spaces (7 and 8), finally being-discharged from ori
• flee •4. The ball-.end is _housed in a spherical, bearing, the lower ring . of
• which is clamped by bolts (2), The essence of the patent is the use. of scraper rings (5), which prevent excess oil from reaching the piston. Scraper „rings are, of course, in themselves, no. novelty, but the high polish induced bit the rotating piston is said to give a. tremendous increase in .their efficiency.i The rotation of the piston is induced by the oscillation of the connecting rod, two pins (3), rocking spring rings 16), which latter act as a free-wheel device. This feature has been covered by an earlier patent, No. 515,111. .
A " FLOATING " DRIVER'S SEAT -FOR HEAVY VEHICLES
ACCORDING to patent No, 554,802, many ailments from which drivers suffer are due to vibration transmitted through the seat; this is particularly in evidence when a large vehicle is travelling fast without load. A seat designed to combe such conditions is shown in the "patent by Hickman Pneumatic Seat Co., Inc., Eden, New York, U.S.A.
The seat is: mounted on an L-shaped
framework (3) which is attached to the floor, a slidable form of adjtistment being incorporated to provide for drivers of different leg-length. The seat cushion and back are held in a second frame, which can pivot On a pair of rockable levers (1 and 2), extending the full width of the seat, and so constrain the Movement to a parallel-ruler action.
T h e resilient member is arowof
swings (4) located S5V122 under the base ,of the cushion. Additional resilience is obtained from the pivots of the levers, which
are held in rubber bushes.. The cushion also contains springs arid is unvented, except for leakage around the stitching; this construction causes the cushion, to function as a rebound damper: .
USING WATER AS AN ANTI: DETONANT
IT' has long been known that water is :'very efficient as an anti-knock agent; this is, probably, the explanation of the well-known belief that engines run better at night, "When -the airis, of course, usually charged with moisture. The difficulty of forming a perfect emulsion with the fuel'ha'S prevented the use of water in this Cole, a/Wong& many devices have beers made to inject it separately.
Patent No. 554,872, from V. Biske, 5; Kingsmead, Upton L a n e, Chester, discloses a method whereby petr ol can be made to unite with a small percentage of water, the resulting emulsion being; it is claimed, perfectly stable,
The method proposed is to subject the mixture to vibrations of a very high frequency, in the order of between 100,000 and' 1,000.000 cycles per second; 15 minutes of such vibration is said to convert 9515 petrol-water mixture into an inseparable errualsion having good anti-knock properties, The patent also covers the use of watersoluble compounds, as, well as water alone.
HAND TOOL FOR TRUING-UP CRANKPINS
ITO permit the truing-up of a worn 1 crankpin without removing the crankshaft from the engine is the object of a tool shown in patent No. 555,107, by E. Arnott, Orchard Cottage, Forest Lane, KeIsall Hill, Chester. The main novelty lies in the means forobtaining a fine adjustment for the set-in of the cutting tool. .
The tool consists ofa V-block (2) confronted by a sliding block (1), which carries the cutting tool. The depth adjuster (3) screws into the slider (1) and into a stationary block (4). The pitch of the two threads differs slightly, that in block 4 being the finer of the two; this produces a differential motion whichneeds a large movement of shaft 3 to effect a fine adjustment of the depth of cut.
. A word of criticism here; the use of a V-bloc,k is no guarantee of roundness, as it is quite possible to rotate a tourcornered:. figure between three faxed points. It is essential, to produce a true cylinder, that one of the backingup faces should be at an angle of 180 degrees tn the cutter.
SANDING DEVICE FOR ROAD , VEHICLES
ALTHOUGH the practice ofsanding the track is extensively used on . rail V'ehicieS, it does not appear to have been seriously applied to road vehicles: HOwever, patent No. 559,647 shows a scheme for doing it, the patentee being P. 'Weider, Giassport, Penn;,
Ahead of each driving wheel is located a sandbox,' the casing of which carries the stock of sand, whilst a perforated central tube (2) acts as 'a"filter, letting only the uncaked sand into the central bore. A valve (3), ope.ca,ted by remote control from the driver's seat, permits a charge of sand ,to be released on to the track of the *heels. To keep the central . tube free from lumps, a manually operated agitator (1) is provided.