OT-The Wright Bros' AC engine

This is from the January Car & Driver, written by Aaron Robinson. Enjoy!

....The pioneers of powered flight gave scant thought to the actual subject
of power until the fall of 1902, when it became clear that the world's
automakers would not or could not deliver the Wrights' hoped-for eight
horsepower from an engine weighing about 180 pounds. The brothers planned
to mount their engine opposite the airplane's center line from the pilot to
balance out the weight, a plan not feasible with the available off-the-
shelf, cast-iron car behemoths.

The Wrights used their experience building a one-piston engine for their
workshop to sketch a 201-cubic-inch, splash-lubricated horizontal four-
cylinder engine. Then they handed the drawings to Charlie Taylor, the
ultimate gearhead. The resourceful Taylor had moved to Dayton in 1896 from
his hometown of Kearney, Nebraska, and was soon employed by the Wrights
making bicycle parts.

Taylor got a local foundry to cast the aluminum cylinder block while he
machined the parts in the Wright workshop using crude hand tools and a
small lathe. To make the 19-pound crankshaft, Taylor started with a 100-
pound block of high-carbon steel and drilled, hand-chisled, and machine-
turned it to working balance. The connecting rods were steel tubes with the
crank and wrist-pin journals screwed onto the ends.

There was no carburetor to save weight. The fuel dribbled into a chamber at
the top of each cylinder where it mixed with air. Before hand-cranking the
props, the Wrights poured boiling water into the head to pre-vaporize the
fuel. The intake valves were sucked open by the pistons, and ignition was
by a set of cam-criven platinum points in each cylinder sparked by a 10-
volt generator. The exhaust valves ran on a dedicated cam.

Taylor must have smiled with satisfaction when, four months after being
handed the drawings, his engine made 12 horsepower from a weight of 175
pounds. It only ran for a minute or two before overheating,* but never
mind. The famous fourth flight was 59 seconds, long enough to write history
and inspire as many as 40,000 people to descend on the Outer Banks for the
centennial do-over.

I'll be there. Some ancestor of mine told me about the first automobile he
saw. What am I supposed to talk about when I'm old? The first time I
experienced high-speed dial-up? In this century of remembrance, the most
memorable experiences may just well be the do-overs.

* I guess Charlie should have incorporated some tin in his design :-)

--
Bill Merrill
Arlington, Mass.
'70 Convertible