During the 1940s and 1950s, Russell Bourke's attempt to advance
piston engine technology by using the "scotch yoke" to increase
piston dwell was not well received by industry.
He was without
doubt ahead of his time, and as many believe,
if given the opportunity, Bourke’s
technology would have been successful for
some important engine applications. His
engine advancement was apparently considered
too challenging and risky for the Automotive
Industry to take seriously. Many engine
enthusiasts had hoped that Bourke would
overcome the bias of the engine industry,
the main problem he often faced, when presenting
his ideas. Nevertheless, Bourke accomplished
much of his objectives and proved through
his various prototype models that added
piston dwell during combustion greatly increases
engine performance for both fuel economy
and power. Those of you who might be interested
in some of Bourke’s accomplishments,
can read selected articles in Hot Rod Magazine,
July and September 1954, for example. Numerous
articles of Bourke’s day were published
in various other magazines and publications,
and also “Bourke’s Documentary”
is available on the Internet which describes
his accomplishments. Many have attempted
to improve Bourke’s engine, but to
date, except for Fisher’s yoke-arm,
no one has found a way to introduce the
necessary added piston dwell during combustion
to provide the superior performance which
has and continues to elude engine manufacturers.
Some main stream automotive manufacturers
have attempted to improve the Bourke
engine by introducing a "yoke-slider", but achieved limited success.
Automotive companies which have implemented
or researched the yoke-slider
are CMC, Toyota, BMW, VW, SAAB,
Benz, Fiat, as examples. CMC or Collins Motor Corporation has achieved the most success with some limited production and test cars in Europe and elsewhere. It appears that
these and other companies have not looked
beyond the Bourke concept because their
intent and focus were apparently just on
the improvements of mostly the “slider”
arrangement. And as a result, no new or
practical mechanical improvements have yet
been devised from them or anyone. Fisher
has developed a new approach which not only
overcomes the disadvantages of the "Bourke Technology", but also has substantially
simplified everything by adding, in essence,
only one component part to the existing
conventional engine which is called a yoke-arm.
The result has been superior performance
compared to Bourke and with the added advantages of many different cylinder arrangements such as the single cylinder, opposed, V-type, in-line and radial for aircraft.
Therefore, the Fisher's yoke-arm has replaced
Bourke as the next level of superior performance
for automotive and other piston engine applications.
Although Russell Bourke was ahead of his
time, the engine technology of his day was
not what it is today. The industry of today
has found limited ways to improve engine
performance by redesigning various peripheral
components like electronic control systems,
fuel injection systems by adding stratified
charging and the like, combustion chambers
for improved combustion efficiencies and
such to increase engine performance and
fuel economy. However, the Automotive Industry
in particular, and the engine industry in
general, have not found a break-thru technology
that will carry engine performance to a
new level into future generations. The new
level similar to what Bourke was trying
to achieve during his day. Fisher's yoke-arm
has not only surpassed Bourke, but has substantially
surpassed improvements provided by the engine
manufacturers of today. The yoke-arm affords
added piston dwell in excess of five times
what Bourke was able to achieve with his
harmonic motion or Bourke-Cycle engine design.
Also, the Bourke engine has a mechanical
disadvantage compared to conventional engines
of today where as Fisher's yoke-arm has
a significant mechanical advantage plus
much less piston friction compared to Bourke
and conventional. So, Fisher has “leap
frogged” both Bourke and conventional
by just adding a single component part,
the yoke-arm. It is beyond the belief of
many that Fisher's yoke-arm technology has
been missed by the World’s automotive
and engine manufacturers. Fisher
has acquired both US and foreign patents. And Fisher Technologies is currently
in the final stages of development to reconfirm
what computer modeling and preliminary prototype
testing have proven about the superiority
of using a yoke-arm to advance engine
performance for future generations.
