Flame Gulping Engine

(youtube) The fuel is alcohol. It was made from plans in the February 1950 issue of Popular Science. Modifications were made to replace the castings originally specified, as I doubt they were available forty-odd years later. My model has run a lot - whenever visitors drop by and at a few exhibitions.
ChaosEnginesays...

Prepare for uniformed speculation!

This is what I think is happening. The ridged cylinder has an inlet near the bottom with a cover connected to the piston. As the piston goes out, it sucks the burning alcohol vapour from the flame through the inlet. This is the "flame gulping" bit.

When the crank rotates, it pushes the piston back in, slides the cover closed and compresses the burning alcohol vapour which then pushes the piston back out and the cycle repeats.

Essentially it's a very simple two stroke engine where the fuel is already ignited on intake, so it doesn't need a spark. Clever, but it would suck for fuel efficiency.

I am not an engineer, so there's a pretty good chance I'm wrong about this.\\

edit: Apparently it's a vacuum engine

articiansaid:

What is a "Flame Gulping Engine"? Wikipedia brought up the entry on the Konami code, so it must be pretty cool, but it still didn't answer my question.

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