Oil Engines

Oil-Engines, the term usually applied to those engines in which the oil fulfils one or two functions; it may be used as fuel, or be the working agent itself, being converted into gas in the cylinder, as water is into steam in the steam-engine. An oil both easily obtained and cheap is necessary for success, hence the Priestman Oil-Engine (1888) by using petroleum marked a distinct epoch in the history of heat-engines. Oil-engines are usually small and compact; they require very little hand-labour, and can be started or stopped instantaneously.