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Aviation History
1915
1915 - 0618.PDF
[/0GHT AUGUST 20, 1915. A NEW ROTARY ENGINE THE "MAUDE." EVER since M. Laurent Seguin, the designer of the " Gnome" engine, first demonstrated the posjibility of combining light weight and smooth running in the rotary engine, motors of this type have had a certain fascination for designers, and numerous examples have appeared with varying success, some of them being highly ingenious. However much these have differed in detail design, some having automatic and others mechanically operated inlet valves, some admitting the mixture through an internal hollow shaft via valves in the piston and others through external radial induction pipes, they the engine from end to end. One half of this tubular shaft is stationary and carries on its outer end the carburettor. Near the centre of the engine this shaft has mounted on it a stationary bevel wheel engaging with the bevel wheels of the crank shafts. The other half of the tubular shaft is keyed to and revolves with the crank case, and a mixture tight joint is formed between the two halves of the shaft by means of a gunmetal bush, which is made a driving fit in the stationary portion of the shaft and a working fit in the rotating part of the shaft. A ball thrust bearing is interposed The " Maude * rotary engine. have, almost without exception, had this in common, that they have been of the radial type. In the " Maude ''engine an entirely different arrangement has been adopted, as will be seen from the accompanying illustrations. Instead of radiating from a common centre, the cylinders are parallel to the axis of rotation and are arranged in two groups, one at each end of the engine. Although working on the "Otto" or "four stroke" cycle, the twelve-cylinder "Maude" engine gives twelve explosions per revolution, a fact which at first tends to give one the impression that it works on the " two-stroke " principle. It may between the latter and the former. The revolving portion of the shaft is extended beyond the front engine plate, and on this exten sion, which, it will be understood, revolves with, and at the same speed as, the engine, is mounted the propeller, the necessary thrust and journal ball bearings being provided. From the crank ca;e, which, broadly speaking, takes the form of a drum, the cylinders project parallel to the central shaft, being arranged in pairs. Pistons of opposing cylinders are connected to a Valve mechanism of one of the cylinders of the "Maude" rotary engine. sound somewhat Irish to say that the cylinders revolve at half- engine speed or that they are mounted on the half-time shaft, but both statements are in a measure correct. The key to the whole apparently complicated situation rests in the gearing between the crankshafts and the central stationary shaft. From the sectional side view of the engine it will be seen that'a hollow shaft of large diameter runs throughout the entire length of 618 Sketch showing one of the cranks with connecting rods of the Maude" rotary engine. small single-throw crank shaft working in plain bearings It will be seen that for a twelve cylinder engine there will be six of these small crank shafts. On the inner end of each of these is a bevel wheel engaging with the fixed bevel wheel on the stationary portion of the central shaft, the gear ratio being two to one. From this it follows that when the engine has made one whole revolution the six crankshafts have made twice as many, i.e., two revolutions
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