Joseph Day (inventor)

For the Canadian Senator, see Joseph A. Day. Joseph Day (1855 in London – 1946) is a little-known[1] English engineer who developed the extremely widely used crankcase-compression two-stroke petrol engine,[1][2] as used for small engines from lawnmowers to mopeds and small motorcycles. He trained as an engineer at the Crystal Palace School of Engineering at Crystal Palace in London, began work at Stothert & Pitt in Bath, and in 1889 designed the crankcase-compression two-stroke engine as it is widely known today (in contrast to the two-stroke engine designed by Dugald Clark), the Valve-less Two-Stroke Engine. In 1878 he started his own business, an iron foundry making cranes, mortar mills and compressors amongst other things. He advertised a new design of “valveless air compressor” which he made on licence from the patentee, Edmund Edwards. By 1889, he was working on an engine design which would not infringe the patents that Otto had on the four-stroke,[3] and that he even... (see more)