A WORD TO YOU The watchword of the world is work! Now work is done in two different ways and these are (1) By muscular strength and (2) by power developed by wind, water and heat. As wind is uncertain and it is hard to convert it into useful power, about the only thing a windmill is good for is to pump water. Flowing water is steady enough but it is not often available, and, consequently, water wheels and turbines cannot be generally employed. But heat, which is a product of chemical action, can be generated in small or large quantities any and everywhere, and steam and internal combustion engines run by it are built in all sizes. The internal combustion engine in which gas or liquid fuels are fired in the cylinder is the ideal engine for all purposes, as its initial cost is little, the fuel it burns is cheap, its upkeep is small, it is compact in size, light in weight and easy and safe to run. In these days of labor-saving devices it is nothing short of a crime to pit your bodily strength against mechanical power, and this is especially true where the latter is produced by an internal combustion engine. Again, as gas, gasoline and oil engines are rapidly displacing all other kinds of prime movers where small units are used and since they are already so extensively employed in the home, the shop, and on the farm, in the form of stationary, portable, tractor, motorcycle, motorboat, motorcar and airplane engines it behooves you to know how they work and how to run them. And this is equally true whether you are a man or a woman, a boy or a girl, for it is only a question of time until you will find yourself face to face with one of them. If you are ignorant of how they are made and work you will, more than likely, go through the harrowing experiences and make the costly mistakes that countless others have made before you. This is a great pity, for it is easy to know all about gas, gasoline and oil engines if you start right, and to do so all you need is to read this book through carefully. A. FREDERICK COLLINS FIGURE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 1. The Cannon of the Chinese . 2. Huygen's, the First Gas Engine Ever Built 3. Street's, the First Gas Engine to Work 4. Barnett's Improved Igniter. 5. Barsanti and Matteucci's Electric Spark Igniter 6. Lenoir's Gas Engine. 7. Brayton's Gasoline and Oil Engine. 8. The First Commercial Otto Gas Engine 9. Schematic Drawing of the First Diesel Self-Igniting Oil Engine PAGE 2 4 6 7 8 10 11 13 14 10. Cross Section of a Simple Four Stroke Cycle Gaso 11. Schematic Drawing Showing How a Four Stroke Cycle Single Cylinder Engine Works 12. Schematic Drawing Showing a Simple Jump-Spark Ignition System and How It Is Timed 13. A Simple Flyball Throttling Governor. 15. (A) Schematic Drawing Showing How the Cams (B) The Cams as They Are Set on the Camshaft 16. How a Simple Two Port, Two Stroke Cycle Engine Is Made . 17. Schematic Drawing Showing How a Two Port, Two Stroke Cycle, Single Cylinder Engine Works 26 27 28 |