Internal combustion apparatus

An internal combustion apparatus comprising a cylinder, a cylinder head arranged in said cylinder, a main operating piston reciprocable in said cylinder, resilient means for biasing said main piston toward a first or rest position, said main piston being adapted to be driven from its first position to an operating position in response to ignition of an explosive mixture, said main piston being operatively connected to an operating member, the improvement comprising a plunger reciprocably mounted in a principal chamber in said cylinder defined by a space formed between said main piston and said cylinder head between a top end of stroke position and a bottom end of stroke position, inlet means for admitting gas fuel and inlet means for admitting combustion supporting gas into an admission chamber formed between said cylinder head and said plunger in the course of its displacement between said top end of stroke position and its bottom end of stroke position, and a combustion chamber defined between said main operating piston and said plunger during its displacement from its bottom end of stroke position and its top end of stroke position, and one-way flow path means provided on said plunger operative in the course of displacement of said plunger between its bottom end of stroke position and its top end of stroke position to transfer the explosive mixture of fuel and combustion supporting gas to said combustion chamber, said plunger having an axial extension slidable along tubular member fixed relative to said cylinder, and valve means connected to said source of fuel which is pressurized, said valve means having a first position to bring said source of fuel into communication with said tubular member and said extension on said plunger for displacing said plunger to its bottom end of stroke position, and a second position for transferring a metered quantity of gas fuel from said extension and said tubular element to said admission chamber.

An internal combustion apparatus, said apparatus being of the intermittent operation type and comprising a cylinder having a stationary cylinder head, a main operating piston reciprocable in said cylinder, resilient means for biasing said piston to a first or rest position, said main piston being adapted to be driven from its first position to an operating position in response to ignition of an explosive mixture, said piston being operatively connected to an operating member, the improvement comprising a plunger receiprocably mounted for operation independently of said main piston in a principal chamber in said cylinder between a top end of stroke position and a bottom end of stroke position, said plunger having a tuburlar column extending through an aperture in said cylinder head and containing at least one throttle pasageway therein, means for biasing said plunger toward said top end of stroke position, a source of liquefied gas fuel, means for bringing said source of gas fuel in communication with a metering chamber, means for transferring the metered quantity of gas fuel to said throttle passageway, means for venting products of combustion from said principal chamber to the atmosphere via a passageway contiguous with said throttle passageway, means for controlling the venting of combustion production from the principal chamber and for simultaneously controlling the transfer of a metered quantity of gas fuel to the throttle passageway whereby the combustion gases vaporize the gas fuel in the throttle passageway before entering the principal chamber where the vaporized gas fuel is mixed with combustion supporting air and then ignited.