[SEL] question about oil engines

[Rob Skinner]

Jim,
Oil engine is a rather vague term.  The early Hornsbys were  
"vaporizing oil engines."  Engines using that type of ignition used a  
variety of fuels.  Fuel nomenclature has changed over the years, but  
modern equivalents might be known as kerosene, naphtha and benzine.   
Interestingly, an engine that was designed to run on a particular  
fraction of petroleum might not run on another fraction.

There's a brief explanation on the web page for our Hornsby:
http://engines.rustyiron.com/hornsby

I did a more comprehensive, although not nearly all-inclusive article  
that you can download:
http://engines.rustyiron.com/articles/AlternativeFuel.pdf

It's in pdf format, several megabytes in size, and will take a few  
minutes to download.   Nevertheless, it includes a little of the  
history and development of vaporizing oil engines that might answer  
your questions.

	
Rob Skinner
Antique Stationary Engines
La Habra, California

rob at rustyiron.com
www.rustyiron.com





On Feb 4, 2009, at 1:46 PM, Kangas, James G. wrote:

> When they refer to an engine like a Hornsby as being an oil engine,  
> what type of oil does it burn? Is it what we would call fuel oil  
> today like Kerosene or No.2 Diesel or is it some less refined  
> petroleum product?
> Also I read a brief description on how a Hornsby works and it  
> mentioned that the oil was vaporized by coming in contact with a hot  
> surface prior to combustion. Isn't this similar to a semi-diesel?
>    Jim