Abstract
A GENERAL meeting of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers was held last week, when the President, Mr. Samuel W. Johnson, delivered an inaugural address dealing chiefly with the progress of locomotive engineering on the Midland Railway, of which he is chief mechanical engineer. The most interesting feature in the ordinary proceeding was the discussion of the first report to the Gas-Engine Research Committee of the Institution. The author of the report was Prof. Frederick W. Burstall, under whose superintendence the investigations had been carried out. The object of the experiments was to determine the effect produced upon the, economy of gas-engines by altering one or more of the conditions which governed their working. In internal combustion engines there are a much larger number of factors to consider than in steam-engines, and it is difficult to ascertain where to look for economy. The factors to be considered are the amount of compression, the speed, the ratio of air to gas, and the amount of heat which is to be ejected through the walls of the cylinder. An increase of compression, for example, is often regarded as conducive to more economical results; but it is uncertain whether the attendant increase in economy is really due to compression alone. To ascertain this, the conditions of working should be altered successively one at a time. This has been done for the steam-engine, but all published results of tests made on gas-engines are based upon only one fixed set of conditions.
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Experiments on the Working of Gas-Engines. Nature 58, 21–22 (1898). https://doi.org/10.1038/058021a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/058021a0