The Theory of the Gas Engine

, Mr. Clerk was certain was the best type for the very large gas engines to be developed in the future. With respect to the cold cylinder engine, of which alone he had treated in the paper, he wished again to insist on this : that the theory which sought to explain the so-called sustained pressure on the indicated diagram by the hypothesis of slow inflammation (erroneously termed slow combustion) was a false one. That when maximum pressure was attained in the gas engine cylinder it was certain that the whole mass was completely inflamed, and that no system of stratification producing slow inflammation could do good, but was quite opposed to the conditions of economy. Dr. Siemens said that one part of the paper dealt with matters regarding the mechanical arrangement of gas engines, and the other with a theoretical question, that of the law of combustion. He would refer to the theoretical part first, because the author appeared to attach great importance to it, and as Dr. Siemens had from time to time given a great amount of consideration to the action of negative combustion or dissociation, it might be of some interest to the members to see how far his views fell in with those set forth by the author. It was well known that by combustion no unlimited degree of temperature could be attained. Thus, in a furnace worked at very high temperature the fuel was not completely burned when it came in contact with the oxygen of the heated or non-heated air. The moment a certa...