Gottlob Honold’s 1914 patent for a “sparking device” more closely resembles the spark plug as we know it. First patented in Germany in 1902, it featured an electro-magnetic coil (b) which pulled up the center terminal (c), breaking the ground with the spark plug body (e) to produce ...

Tremper’s second igniter patent, granted just four months after his first, dispensed with the spring-loaded contact in the piston crown and instead incorporated a “flexible sparking strip,” which could be designed any number of ways, giving far more flexibility to design. Last issue, ...

Frank Tremper’s Original igniter patent incorporated a spring-loaded contact (item “G” in Fig. 2) set in the piston head. Included in the patent was his scheme for a chain-driven rotary valve to control intake and exhaust (item “P” in Fig 1.) Most antique engine collectors are ...

A detailed drawing of George B. Brayton's engine as shown in his 1872 patent for "improvement in gas engines". Students of gas-powered engines know that Nicolaus Otto (1832-1891) is credited as the father of the 4-cycle engine that still serves us today, powering just about every kind of ...

J.W. Raymond's 1892 patent for an overhead cam gas engine. Was this the world’s first overhead cam engine design? From the little we can find, it just may have been. Patented by engineer J.W. Raymond, San Francisco, California, in 1892, it preceded the overhead camshaft Springfield Model ...

P.T. Coffield’s 1897 patent for the “cam stopper” as used on Callahan engines. The mechanism for coupling and uncoupling the sideshaft is at the crankshaft end of the sideshaft. The vertical flyball governor acts directly on the mechanism. From the beginning, engine manufacturers ...