William Joseph Still
Inventor of an engine which captured the waste heat to generate steam which could then be injected into the cylinder to drive the piston on the return stroke (ie the stroke after the combustion stroke).
1869 Born in Reigate[1] son of George Strickland Still, an ironmonger's manager and his wife Helen Sophia Still[2]
1891 George Still 52, Helen Still 50, Helen Still 22, William Still 21, lived in York West, Ontario.
c.1892 Patent on electrical motor (filed in Canada)
1894 Patents on "Improvements in the Electrical Propulsion of Cars" and on "Improved Apparatus for Converting Alternating Electric Currents into Direct Currents" (filed in Canada)
1896 Patent on "Storage Battery" (filed in Canada) and several more on similar subjects over the next few years
1901 Patents on "Improvements in Governors Especially Suitable for Controlling the Speed of Motor Propelled Road Vehicles" and "Improvements in Hydrocarbon Motors". (filed in Canada).
1901 Living in Reigate, an electrical engineer[3]
1902 An electrical engineer when he married Grace Mabel Bailey in Ealing[4]
1904 Patent on "Improved Method and Apparatus for Transmitting Heat from one Fluid to another by Means of Plates" (filed in Britain) and many more patents on a variety of subjects over succeeding years.
1911 Living in Southall, a consulting engineer specialising in the transmission of heat, with Grace Mabel Still 28, Mabel Helen Still 7, Ernest William Still 6, Ena Dorothy Still 4[5]
1919 Captain Francis Edward Dyke Acland made a presentation at the Royal Society of Arts on the new prime mover invented by W. J. Still; Acland and Still had been working on developing the engine for many years[6]
The engine was more a concept for total energy recovery than an actual engine design. The basic principle was to recover as much waste heat as possible in the exhaust gases and engine cooling water by generating steam and using it to drive steam cylinders; the Still engine thus combined diesel and steam.
Post-WWI The Still engine concept was licenced to Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Co of Greenock - see Scott-Still
1939 William Joseph Still, consulting engineer (heat transmission) lived in Ealing with Grace Mabel Still, Grace Bailey, Helen Betsey Still[7]
1959 Died in Ealing[8]