Some interesting mechanisms

[oldjohnno]

Nothing particularly state of the art here but if you have an interest in mechanisms you'll like some of the details on these 100 year old engines. I particularly liked the engine throttled via continuously variable valve timing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v07ZIGI ... be&t=1m52s

[MadBill]

Wow, desmodromic valve!

[cgarb]

Interesting to see where combustion engines started and where they are now. How elaborate the engines were for what they were trying to accomplish. If you could take a 5hp Briggs and Stratton back in time to that time think about what they would have thought about that. Twice the power at 1/10th the weight.

[oldjohnno]

Interesting to see where combustion engines started and where they are now. How elaborate the engines were for what they were trying to accomplish. If you could take a 5hp Briggs and Stratton back in time to that time think about what they would have thought about that. Twice the power at 1/10th the weight.

I get your point but remember that even over a hundred years ago some fairly advanced engines were being built. See the drawing of the 1913 Peugeot GP engine below with 4 valves/cyl, DOHC with finger followers, small hemi chambers and dry sump oiling. This engine was the inspiration for the Miller and the Offy that followed it. The engines in the original post on the other hand were designed to give a long life and reliability in stationary applications where power:weight ratios were relatively unimportant.

[shoedoos]

The epitome of steampunk.....

[dwilliams]

Interesting to see where combustion engines started and where they are now. How elaborate the engines were for what they were trying to accomplish. If you could take a 5hp Briggs and Stratton back in time to that time think about what they would have thought about that. Twice the power at 1/10th the weight.

The first reason was that a lot of technology was patented; not all patent holders were interested in licensing. A designer back then operated under much tighter constraints than nowadays.

The second reason was that "motor fuel" could be almost anything from "gasoline" (which was originally sold for washing clothes!) to various alcohols to naptha to "coal gas" to... there were no octane ratings, either, which was why most engines had operator-adjustable spark advance and (often) mixture control. Every new tank of fuel was a new adventure.