Genuine technical innovation is seldom to be found nowadays. The internal combustion engine has attained such a peak of refinement that true technical breakthroughs are few and far between. Mostly the story of the continued development of the internal combustion engine is one of hard-won  incremental improvements  and perhaps most significantly, it is the nature of the beast that most of the major research and development effort on internal combustion engine technology is necessarily being done by (or on behalf of) the world's leading motor manufacturers, invariably under  an impenetrable veil of secrecy.

More recently Irishman George J Coates has confirmed this notion by announcing his latest invention….

The Coates spherical-valve cylinder head.

At first glance, there appears to be something wrong with the Coates cylinder head, almost as though there are bits missing. Of course there are bits missing... lots of bits. in fact, the whole valve train has gone for a burton. Instead of the conventional poppet valves, camshafts and the various bits (followers, pushrods, rockers etc) in between that transfer motion from the cam lobe to the valve, have been replaced by spherical valves whose operating principle is not unlike that of a rotary valve.
Many of you,  WELL OLD FOGGIES LIKE ME ,will recall the  rotary-valve engines that were/are used in karting. These little 100cc, two-stroke units will easily rev to 17,to-l8,000rpm when tuned right, producing prodigious power for their size. This is all due to the low inertia and accuracy of the rotary valve, which is fitted directly to the crankshaft.

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