SEAMS News Archives

Crossley Gas Engine

A SEAMS committee member recently lent me a book dated 1905 titled ‘Gas and Petroleum Engines’ by A G Elliott from the Whittaker’s Handbooks for Engineers series. It is very well illustrated with dozens of illustrations and I was particularly struck by the Crossley Gas engine and the descriptive text that went with it.jluly crossley

I have extracted the article and include it here as I thought it may be of interest to some Seams members even though it dates from over 110 years ago.

‘This engine is from the cycle point of view purely and simply an Otto gas engine.  A light shaft runs parallel to the cylinder, being driven by a worm-gear off the crank-shaft.  On it are situated the cams which force open the four spring-valves, controlling respectively the admission of air gas and the ignition and exhaust.

The pressure of the gases is raised during compression to about four atmospheres, and immediately after the explosion it rises to about 180 lbs on the square inch; during the exhaust it averages about 10 lbs per square inch. Ignition is obtained by a tube heated to a bright red incandescence by a Bunsen flame.  At the right moment a valve is opened, placing the explosive mixture in contact with it and causing the explosion.  When starting the machine the ignition is retarded or takes place a little after passing the dead point, so that the machine cannot start the wrong way by mistake.’

John Moss.