Rotary engines in WW1

Orval Fairbairn wrote:

In article ,
(JohnF73157) wrote:



The intake valve was actually located in the top of the piston, this allowed
the fuel/air mixture in the crankcase to enter the cylinder on the "down"
stroke.

Al Minyard



Were rotary engines 2 cycle or 4 cycle?



2-cycle -- hence all the castor oil, which was about the only suitable
oil at the time for that use. Incidentally, a lot of racing cars used
castor oil up into the 1960s.


Not to mention 2-cycle racing motorcycles. I have great smell-memories
of attending bike races in my early teens, when the sport was less
stratified, and more grass-roots, run-what-ya-brung. Sitting around an
abandoned quarry turned into a scrambles track, bikes (many converted
from street use) from five or six different displacement classes
screaming around in circles under a cloud of sweet-fragrance blue
smoke...not very environmentally friendly, but a spectacle I'm glad to
have witnessed.