Gas Engine Patents of Note The Mery Explosive Engine

摘要

"The object of my invention is to provide a double-acting explosive engine, simple in its construction of parts, efficient and accurate in its explosions, and capable of easy and perfect adjustment." So wrote Michael Lawrence Mery of Chico, California, in his patent application submitted Feb. 7, 1895. On July 23, a little more than four months later, Mery was awarded patent number 543,157 for his Mery Explosive Engine. Constructed in some measure along steam engine principles in common use at the time, the Mery is a double-acting engine featuring a single piston. Like a double-acting steam engine, the Mery utilizes a crosshead with a connecting rod running forward to a single cylinder and an another connecting rod running from the crosshead to the crankshaft. The connecting rod running into the cylinder passes through a water-cooled packing gland and then to the piston. But that's where the Mery's similarity to a steam engine, or any other engine, stops.