146 BULLETIN 173, U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 



separate strokes of di-ff event lengths. Beck in 1888 introduced an 

 engine operating on a new cycle, the 6-stroke cycle in which there 

 was an explosion every six strokes of the piston. The object was to 

 obtain a more complete elimination of the products of combustion 

 by admitting fresh air on the fifth stroke and discharging it to the 

 atmosphere on the sixth stroke. These two strokes were known as 

 "scavenger" strokes. 



American developments. — Oliver Evans, who built steam engines 

 at Philadelphia before 1800, described a volcanic engine that, in 

 spite of its name, was not an explosive engine, Samuel Morey, of 

 Orford, N. H., designed the first American internal-combustion en- 

 gine of record. His vapor engine was described in the Journal of 

 the Franklin Institute of 1826, and a letter of his indicates that he 

 used the engine to drive a small boat (probably a model) success- 

 fully. In the Morey engine a vacuum was produced in the cylinder 

 by firing an explosive mixture of air and vapor from common proof 

 spirits mixed with a small portion of spirits of turpentine. A model 

 of this engine ran smoothly for periods of several hours, but there 

 is no record that a large engine was ever built. A "gentleman" did 

 "go to England for the purpose of obtaining a patent in that coun- 

 try." Morey 's engine was an atmospheric engine but Stuart Perry, 

 of Newport, N. Y., patented an engine in 1814 that operated on the 

 expansion of the products of combustion occurring within the cylin- 

 der. This was the first of the class of noncompression gas engines, 

 the type successfully introduced by Lenoir, of France, about 15 

 years later. The Perry engine operated on the explosive vapors ob- 

 tained from rosin heated by the exhaust gases in a retort that was a 

 part of the engine. He patented an improved engine in 1846 that 

 incorporated water cooling of the cylinder, an incandescent platinum 

 igniter, and a receiver for compressed air to be used in starting the 

 engine. Dr. Alfred Drake, of Philadelphia, patented an engine in 

 1855 that was similar to one he had exhibited at Philadelphia as early 

 as 1843. A Drake engine with a 16-inch cylinder and a large fly- 

 wheel — "the whole resembling a steam engine of about 25 horse- 

 power" — was used to furnish part of the power for the machine room 

 of the 27th Annual Exhibition of the American Institute at New 

 York in 1855. This was probably the first internal-combustion engine 

 other than a model to be built in the United States. Drake later 

 advertised his engines for sale. The Otto & Langen atmospheric 

 free-piston engine, however, was the first to be used here in any 

 number. It was patented in this country in 1867 and was introduced 

 a short time later. George B. Brayton, of Exeter, N. H., and Boston, 

 Mass., was the first American to design and build an engine that was 

 a commercial success. He built and ran an engine as early as 1870 

 and patented his design in 1872. His engine operated with combus- 



