Posted 4 years ago
hotairfan
(385 items)
This is a Vacuum rotor engine, sometimes called a flame licker engine or atmospheric engine. It is, I believe from the 1920's. It is approx. 7 lb. and overall length is 9" x 6" tall. as the pamphlet shows, it cost $ 6.00 new. It was made by the Rotor Corporation Of America in Dayton Ohio.
I bought this flame licker during my visit to the annual Carlisle, PA Car Show yesterday. It was stuck fast and filthy. It has all the parts that belong to it, so, I took a chance and bought it. I hoped that I could get it to relive for me. After plenty of oil and scotch-brite, I got it to turn over. I added denatured alcohol to the well and wick and it started to pop. After repeated adj. of the wick, it started running and ran for a half hour, non-stop. So, how does it work?
The flame is sucked into the piston chamber as the piston is drawing back, the port cover closes and the hot gases begin to cool. This creates a vacuum in the piston chamber and draws the piston forward and reopens the port to allow another charge of heated air into the chamber, thus starting the process all over again
Amazing operation. Well, it kept you busy, off the streets and out of trouble for awhile. LOL !! This is a really strange concept and very interesting. Who thought of it ?
don't know who thought of the flame licker idea. It is kind of a hot air engine which was invented by a man named Stirling.
It was tricky starting, but after it warmed up, it ran and restarted very easy. I noticed with my other flame licker engines, that if I pre heated the cylinder wall with a berns-o-matic torch, it was easy to run.
Very nice, great job on bringing it back to life!! Thanks for sharing!!!
Very Nice, and Very Interesting, As Usual.! I Love Your Taste in Old Mechanical Devices,! Thank You for Sharing This, and Keep it Up Please!.
thank you for the nice comments.