NEW SLEEVE-VALVE ENGINE DEVELOPED BY OHIO INVENTOR

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6802, 4 January 1929, Page 8

NEW SLEEVE-VALVE ENGINE DEVELOPED BY OHIO INVENTOR

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY CO-OPERATES—-EMBRACES NEW IDEA,

A four-cycle-automobile engine with a single sleeve-valve has been developed in° the automotive research laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in co-operation with its inventor, Luther A. Gaw, of Cincinnati, the Technology Review announces. Engineers for years have sought to perfect an engine with a single sleevevalve, a problem which presented many technical obstacles. Engineering development of the new engine, which has a remarkably simple sleeve-valve of fewer moving parts than any other four cycle engine, has been going on in Technology’s automobile research laboratory for more than a year under tho direction of Prof. Dean A. Fales. The basic idea of the Gaw single sleeve-valve has been proved practical in laboratory research and in operation of one of the experimental engines on road tests covering more than 10,000 miles, Professor Fales reported. The engine, ho stated, marks a notable advance in the design of sleeve-valve motors. The outstanding feature of the new engine is the simple sleeve-valve of light steel tubing, which slides between the cylinder wall and the piston being operated vertically and without rotating motion by a ball-boaring rockor am and a positive cam mechanism. The motor is conventional in appearanco, and the valve mechanism is readily accessible through removable plates on the side of the crank case. Three patents have been granted Mr

Gaw covering tlie single sleeve design, the positive cam driving the sleeve, and .the type of head embodied in the motor. The sleeve is so constructed that no harmful burning occurs around the edges of the ports, the simple up-and-down' reciprocating motion of the sleeves giving a sharp opening and cutoff. The sleeve is light and capable of being operated at high speeds. Further power advantages are made possible by the relatively fewer working parts. Such is the design of the camshaft that it may be built extremely rigid, thereby eliminating torsion or twisting that is said to occur in the eccentric shafts of some sleeve-valve motors. The compact combustion chamber with tlio exhaust port on a lower level than the intake, is said to give unusual turbulenco to the entering gas and makes possible what is known as a stratifie/1 charge—a condition where the new gas forms a layer at the top of the cylinder next to the spark-plug and The unexhausted gas remains between it and the piston top. Because of the compact combustion chamber the engine has a very high compression ratio. The engine is virtually noiseless and in road tests has shown economy in fuel and oil consumption.