Liquid Fuels For Internal Combustion Engines; A Practical Treatise For Engineers & Chemists

Liquid Fuels for Internal Combustion A PRACTlCAL TREATJSE FOR ENGINEERS CHEMISTS - I920 - PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION THOUG o H nly two years have elapsed since the first edition left the authors hands, many developments have taken place and numerous researches have been published during this period. It has therefore been necessary to make many additions to the matter of the original edition -- PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION -- THE rapid development of the internal combustion engine during the last twenty years has considerably changed our methods of power production and widened the field of mechanical invention. A great variety of design is found among internal combustion engines which burn liquid fuels, and as this type is the most recent development of that class of engine, it is not surprising that the scientific study of the fuels used is still incomplete. The earlier invest gatlons ot liquid iuels were principally concerned with their use for external combustion. The last few years have, however, seen a change which makes their use for internal combustion the more important. It appears very likely from the trend of modern mechanical invention that, concurrently with the increasing cost of fuel, and with the rapid development of the oil engine and the petrol motor, the employment of liquid fuels for steam raising will entirely give place to their use in the more efficient internal combustion engine. The use of Diesel engines for propelling warships is at present prevented by the insufficiency of experience in building engines of very large size and of low weight in proportion to the power they develop, but these difficulties are by no means insurmountable. The future of the internal combustion turbine is at present a matter for speculation, but there is every possibility that the next twenty years will see great progress made in this direction. The study of fuel oils is closely connected with engineering and with chemistry, and a thorough acquaintance with the elements of engineering practice and the basic principles of organic chemistry are essential to an understanding of the subject. The author has attempted briefly to explain the chemical differences which exist among liquid fuels. Any exhaustive explanation of the chemistry of the compounds present in liquid fuels and the chemical reactions which are involved in their preparation and purification would be outside the scope of this work. The procedure necessary for the examination and valuation of liquid fuels with a view to their use in internal combustion engines is widely different from the methods employed in the examination of liquid fuels for steam raising purposes, and is much more intricate and delicate. The author, therefore, hopes that this introduction to a somewhat specialised subject may be of assistance to engineers and chemists interested in the internal combustion engine, and perhaps stimulate experimental work in this field. In the arrangement of Parts I., I I., and I1 I. in this book a certain amount of overlapping of material has been unavoidable, and several repetitions of statements have been intentionally made in order to make each part complete in itself as far as possible. . The author wishes to acknowledge his indebtedness to Messrs Baird Tatlock, of Manchester, for the loan of several blocks for illustrations, to Mr A. J. Wilson for his assistance in the preparation of the drawings and diagrams for this book, and to Messrs Mirrlees, Bickerton Day, in whose laboratories at Hazel Grove the Iarger part of the experiments and analyses mentioned in this book have been carried out...