Just to break the monotony of this forums obsession with steam engines I present a short video of a recent breakthrough I have had with my little BEECo ( affectionately known as Leek’s ) non compression, flame ignition gas engine.
I acquired this engine some 40 years ago and despite 100’s of hours tinkering trying various fuels I was never successful in seeing it running on anything but Hydrogen, or by replacing the open flame with a spark pug and high tension spark. As most are aware this particular gas is both expensive and not readily available here in the UK.
The BEECo version was made available in a variety of sizes and sold as casting sets from around the turn of the late 1900’s and into the 20’s. Mine being one of the last batches sold ( C 1920 ) They were very similar to the toys sold by various European manufacturers like Schoner and Ernst Planck.
So…. Back to the present. The AGE as sold here in the UK is a very close copy of the Schoner, right down to the eight spoke flywheels! I also know that they are just as reluctant to run on our cheaply available fuels. Here’s the solution, and the reason for my post. As many of you model engineers know Alyn foundry has produced quite a few scale models of engines that employ hot tube ignition. One of the key ingredients for their success is the ignition tube and its alloy combination. A high Nickel content, such as 316 stainless works the best. Several weeks ago I had the idea that this might actually work by using it for the flame port or as I like to term it, the touch hole. My engine had a hole threaded to 1/8” BSP and I tried many different materials for the insert, over many years. A few examples still retain their originally drilled port, But that’s a different story.
It worked a treat with sustained running for several minutes. I then tried different diameters with 1 mm being the smallest before failing to ignite, 1.5 mm seems to be the optimal diameter to get the most force against the piston.
The AGE differs from both the BEECo and Schoner by trying to use the auxiliary air valve to perform two different functions. My engine has a face cam that operates an exhaust valve mounted in the centre of the cylinder head. The air valve mounted in the end of the cylinder floats in a slightly open position but is blown shut the instant the engine fires. The sudden expansion of gasses acts against the piston forming the very short power stroke. I also wonder if this modification might enable the owners of Bisschop patent models that were produced a few decades ago?
Graham.
