Piston engine as a combustion engine or as a compressor with opposed cylinders

A piston engine comprising a housing for opposed cylinders with reciprocating pistons therein adapted during engine operation to effect rotation of an engine shaft mounted in said housing, in which two opposedly working pistons are rigidly connected to each other by a hollow carrier through which the engine shaft extends, said carrier having interior wall portions that move tangentially to the engine shaft on opposite sides thereof during reciprocating movement of the pistons and carrier, said wall portions being provided with a main series of staggered projections thereon and said engine shaft being provided with a first corresponding stack of toothed discs fixedly mounted thereon, said main series of staggered projections being formed and arranged to successively engage and push the teeth of said first corresponding stack of toothed discs to apply rotational torque to the engine shaft as the carrier reciprocates, the number of teeth on a single disc corresponding to the number of working strokes of a piston for each revolution of the shaft.