A NEW ENGINE

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 48, 20 November 1920, Page 9

A NEW ENGINE

/ > -— TRIUMPH' OF .BRITISH SKILL. Considerable'interest has been aroused amongst engineers by recent disclosures regarding developments made during the war -in the construction of uniflow engines. In' these-engin'es, as their name, indicate, the steam flows always in tlie same direction/, entering the cylinder at the ends and leaving it by exhaust open-' jngs situated" in the middle of. the cylinder (says ' the Bulletin of * tho Ue- . partmenii of Overseas Trade).' ' - . Ina-paper read before the Institution • ■ of- Mechanical Engineers it was stated • that the efficiency of such- engines ■is very high. ■ and a- ■ succeeding speaker stated that iSio efficiency was of such an order to challenge the title for maximum efficiency for power plant claimed by; the steam turbine and' electrical' machinery makers. Tho'manufacturers of Slow-speed engines "in. this coumlry, about thirty on number, are to take concerted action, first, to carry on propaganda . fl'ork to mako-known tlief merits of the and, secondly, to conduct! research; into '.the thermodynamic possibilities of the engine. In any industrial applications, such as for Beswmer blowlng engines, and rolling mills, the advantages of (Illicit response- to control nnd ■"?? p'.nced this type, of engine altovo all o'lher 'systems. ■■■••••

It is interesting to' note that this ehginq, which ia sometimes wrongly ascribed'to n German inventor, was probnblv first invented by. nn Englishman named Jacob Perkins, about 1825-7, and subsequently painted by another En*. lishmnn- in 1885. It was not until 1908 that Professor Stumpf by devising n special type of' valve gea'r, caused tho engine to be reintroduced. German science was, however,' unable to produce a-reversing engine oil the un-iflow' principle, arid before the war a German manufacturer offered .£40,000 -W a .British _. manufacturer if he c-onld produce euch an engine. Developments in valve gear made during tho war by British manufacturers enablo reversing to bo flono satisfactorily.