Crankshaft key to new engine

Press, 17 August 1978, Page 22

Crankshaft key to new engine

PA Oamaru. An invention that could revolutionise the internal combustion engine has been produced by two inventors in a “Central South Island valley," according to “N.Z. Engineering News” magazine. The inventors’ engine is designed to run an average family car for 80 to 90 miles per gallon. Other important features claimed are the almost complete elimination of pollutant emissions, the end of the conventional cooling system, and the ability to run on either conventional or lead-free fuels including kerosene, diesel, and wood-alcohol extractions. The inventors, Messrs J. B Taylor and R. J. Thompson, both practising engineers, say they do not want the area they live in to be revealed and would say nothing further about their invention other than what appeared in the magazine. The two men and their financial backer, Mr R. G. Chave, have applied for a New Zealand patent and overseas rights, the magazine said. The patent was being processed by patent attor-

neys and the official preliminary search “has revealed no New Zealand patent specification which discloses the features of your invention.” Official permission to go ahead has been granted by the Commissioner of Patents (Mr K. S. Dalefield). The inventors’ summarv of the Taylor-Thompson engine said: “In a conventional internal combustion engine approximately one-third of the fuel’s potential energy is available as brake horsepower; approximately another third is lost through the exhaust. “The Taylor-Thompson engine is designed to use the lost energy by having a power stroke at least twice as long as the intake stroke. This means expanding gases can be expanded down to a very low exhaust pounds per square inch, thus converting the lost energy to mechanical energy. “The key is, mainly, in the crankshaft design which gives the two different stroke lengths over one four-stroke cycle. The output shaft runs at half the speed of the crankshaft.”