File:Atkinson-cycle engine.jpg

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This is an Atkinson-cycle engine, though in this modern world, it has become a bit confusing about what that actually means. This is a working example of one that uses actual Atkinson-style linkages. The path of motion energy transfer is a bit convoluted, resulting in a wheel that turns once for every two cycles of the piston (it's a four-stroke engine, so you end up with one revolution per combustion/exhaust cycle).

My understanding is that the strange linkages came about because Mr. Atkinson wanted to find a way around the patents on engines of the day so that he could make his own engines without paying royalties.

Anyway, a side-effect of the layout is that the piston travels slightly different lengths during the compression/combustion strokes as it does for the exhaust/intake strokes (at least in certain designs), which apparently makes it slightly more efficient. The engine in the Toyota Prius makes use of a regular modern engine but with slightly modified valve timing to simulate this effect and save on fuel (though there's a cost in terms of torque and/or horsepower), so it's often called an "Atkinson-cycle engine" even though it doesn't have the funky energy transmission path.
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Source originally posted to Flickr as Atkinson-cycle engine
Author Michael Hicks
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This image, which was originally posted to Flickr, was uploaded to Commons using Flickr upload bot on 23 October 2008, 17:11 by Jacopo Werther. On that date, it was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the license indicated.
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12 August 2006

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44°0'16.2"N, 92°30'35.0"W

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current17:32, 23 October 2008Thumbnail for version as of 17:32, 23 October 20083,456 × 2,304 (786 KB)Flickr upload botUploaded from http://flickr.com/photo/28496375@N00/265730857 using Flickr upload bot

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