Rotary internal combustion engine

Claim 1

A rotary internal combustion engine comprising: an outer body having spaced end walls and a peripheral wall interconnecting said end walls to define a cavity having an axis normal to said end walls, the inner surface of said peripheral wall having basically the profile of a multi-lobed epitrochoid with its lobes being spaced circumferentially about said axis; an inner body received within said outer body cavity and supported for rotation with respect to said outer body with the axis of said inner body laterally spaced from, but parallel to the axis of said outer body cavity, parallel end faces of said inner body having sealing engagement with end walls of said cavity, the periphery of said inner body having circumferentially spaced apex portions, one more in number than said lobes, each of said apex portions having continuous sealing engagement with said peripheral wall of said outer body to divide the space between said inner and outer bodies into a plurality of working chambers which progressively increase and decrease in volume upon relative rotation of the inner body with respect to the outer body, each working chamber extending from one of said apex portions to another adjacent apex portion in all relative positions of the two bodies; means for momentarily sealing off a trailing portion of each working chamber from a leading portion thereof approximately at the moment of each maximum contraction of said working chamber; means for delivering a timely charge of compressed fuel exclusively to said leading portion of each working chamber while it is sealed off from the trailing portion thereof; ignition means for igniting each such charge, to produce a power impulse; and exhaust passage means opening into said space for sequentially and individually exhausting combustion gases from said working chambers at the conclusion respectively of the power impulses taking place in these.