The K-D Automobile & The K-D Motor Co.

Charles Y. Knight also invented a famous engine but their is no relation to the engine invented by Margaret E. Knight. Margaret E. Knight was a female inventor born in York, Maine. Ms Knight devised a stop-motion device to prevent loom accidents in clothing factories and devised a mechanism that produced a bag with a square bottom. She also created a number of handy domestic gadgets, including various machines that cut out and sewed shoes, a window sash and frame, a dress and skirt shield, a barbecue pit, a clasp for holding robes, and a numbering device.

The K-D engine invented by Knight and Davidson was a four cylinder with a four inch bore and a six inch stroke. It was a non-poppet type with a reciprocating sleeve at one side to admit the mixture and a similar sleeve on the opposite side for the exhaust. These sleeves are reciprocated 2 inches at half crankshaft speed, and were located between two stationary cylinder walls. The piston reciprocates within the inner cylinder wall. The outer cylinder is water jacketed and is cast integrally with the cylinder head and is removable.

The K-D engine had one more peculiarity. The bottom of the main or inner cylinder is enclosed beneath the piston and is also water jacketed. The exhaust gases instead of being direct from the combustion chamber above the piston are connected to the space beneath the piston and used to force the piston up, thereby acting as a double acting motor.

We are looking for K-D automobile photographs or vintage K-D advertising for this web page. In the mean time enjoy this Combination Tire ad from a vintage 1915 magazine.

1903 Rutenber Engines & Stolz Engines