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When long flights are undertaken the advantage of the light weight of this engine is more than counterbalanced by its high fuel and lubricating oil consumption, but there are other makes which are much better than this seven-cylinder German in respect of this.

The seven-cylinder 50 horse-power Gnome rotary engine was fitted to the Farman machine the Voisins had fitted an eight-cylinder Antoinette, giving 50 horse-power at 1,100 revolutions per minute, with direct drive to the propeller. Farman reduced the weight of the machine from the 1,450 lbs. of the Voisins to some 1,010 lbs. or thereabouts, and the supporting area to 450 square feet.

The A.B.C. 'Wasp II, made by Walton Motors, Limited, is a seven-cylinder radial, air-cooled engine, the cylinders having a bore of 4.75 inches and stroke 6.25 inches. The normal brake horse-power at 1,650 revolutions is 160, and the maximum 200 at a speed of 1,850 revolutions per minute.

The R.E.P. type,in the early days, was a 'fan' engine, but the designer, M. Robert Pelterie, turned from this design to a seven-cylinder radial, which at 1,100 revolutions per minute gave 95 horse-power.

Of these the smallest was a seven-cylinder 90 horse-power engine, and the largest, rated at 600 horse-power, had eighteen cylinders. These engines, during the War, were made under license by the Dudbridge Ironworks in Great Britain.

A seven-cylinder model soon displaced this first engine, and this latter, with a total weight of 165 lbs., gave 61.5 horse-power. The cylinders were machined out of solid nickel chrome-steel ingots, and the machining was carried out so that the cylinder walls were under 1/6 of an inch in thickness.

Both the piston valve and exhaust valve are operated by cams formed on the one casting, which rotates at seven-eighths engine speed for the seven-cylinder type, and nine-tenths engine speed for the nine-cylinder engines. Each of these cams has four or five points respectively, to suit the number of cylinders.

I never stopped till I found myself on the threshold of the Buggam Arms in Little Buggam, beating on the door for the landlord. I returned to Buggam Grange on the next day in the bright sunlight of a frosty November morning, in a seven-cylinder motor car with six local constables and a physician. It makes all the difference. We carried revolvers, spades, pickaxes, shotguns and an ouija board.