| Show WITHOUT HOUSES carriages that aro propelled by motor power testa in france tor the ot bringing out the bet type of machine for vehicles one year ago there waa so much interest in these horseless carriages that a race was arranged between them from paris to boaen the first prize to be given to the carriage which should excel in speed safety manageability and economy there were one hundred and two vehicles entered but before the day of the this number was reduced by withdrawals and dis qualifications to twenty one the starters were of all shapes and sizes from neat victorias to great coaches for eight and ten passengers the first to finish was comte de alons steam vehicle a heavy traction engine of some twenty five horsepower horse power drawing a four seated carriage the next to finish thirty five minutes later was a four seated phaeton built ty the sons of peugeot brothers of paris and propelled by a daimler petroleum motor alic next four to finish were also propelled by this same motor alie prize was given to the first petroleum motor to finish and this carriage had covered tho distance eighty miles in five hours and forty minutes including two stops of fifteen minutes each this test was a distinct victory for petroleum engines and a special victory for the daimler type of engine in these petroleum engines it must not be understood that petroleum is used as a fuel for the production of steam the principle is quite different as this daimler motor is the utilization of gas explosions produced at regular intervals what bothered the inventive minds of those who first experimented with this type of engine was the irregularity of motion and the fact that when the work to be done was less than the normal power of the engine too many explosions plo occurred and the machine ran too fast the first of these defects was corrected by the introduction of a flywheel heavy enough to take up and carry on all surplus force of the gas at the moment of its explosion the piston was thus brought back by the momentum acquired by the flywheel fly wheel to the position in the cylinder where a fresh explosion had the greatest propelling effect upon it the second defect mentioned was remedied by an ingenious application of the principle ol 01 alie regulation governor by the gas valve was not opened when the speed of the engine exceeded a certain limit again the cylinder in which the explosions took place became so hot after a time that the entire engine was likely to be smashed owing to the expansion of parts made to fit accurately A water jacket around the cylinder and a circulating cistern in with it prevented tah catastrophe the heated water flowed out ab ovo whilo the cold water passed into ahr cistern in its turn with such general improvement as indicated the gas engine became corn merci ally practicable but it was not until about nine years ago that sir daimler a german inventor found that he could make use of the ordinary gas engine with some modifications as a consumer of liquid carbons car bous variously known as petroleum naphtha or gasoline the chief change was the addition of a small heating chamber into which the liquid fuel passed before it entered the cylinder beneath this chamber a petroleum burner was lighted and its metal covering made so hot that the petroleum vaporizer vaporized as soon as it entered the chamber the freshly prepared gas was then in position to explode in the cylinder as soon as it was mixed with alie air A small portion of each charge was allowed to escape through an opening near the top of tho cylinder so as to come in contact with the naked light which heated the vaporizing vapor izing chamber these various steps automatically regulated by puppet valves which regulated the force and timo of the explosions such on general lines is the daimler motor which has been used so effectively in these road tests in france after seemingly perfecting the motor there was much ingenuity required in reducing its size and also in preventing bad noise perfect combustion secured an abatement of odors and the size was diminished by shortening the stroke of the piston rod and enlarging the cross section of the cylinder this gave a shorter connecting rod between the piston crosshead cross head and the pin on the flywheel fly wheel in order to gain increased power with a shorter stroke the speed of the engine had to 10 accelerated from one hundred and twenty to seven hundred revolutions por minute |
