The basic design for this unusual engine was gleaned from the first patent appearing in IC Engines Vol 2 published by Lindsay Publications. Linford's 1880 patent reveals a two-piston hit-and-miss engine. The pistons come together to form a single combustion chamber where Jim installed a spark plug to replace the original flame igniter. Also added were cooling fins on each cylinder, and a second flywheel.
"The drawings and description in the patent book gave me the gist of what I needed to know." Using that information, Jim worked through a series of sketches. Although Jim has built wooden prototypes of some of his scratch-built engines, he skipped this step and went right to making more than a dozen wooden patterns.
Out in the foundry, the patterns were used to ram up sand molds into which molten aluminum was poured. Then it was back into the shop to machine the parts, erect the engine, and adjust it. Ben Imbrock commented: "It's a one twist starter and keeps on running. It's weird-looking with lots of things moving while it is running, which makes it interesting to watch."
If you have the Gingery book "Building the Atkinson Cycle Engine", then you've met Jim before. The engine design is essentially a Lewis version of James Atkinson's original (as documented in IC Engines Vol 1).
Dave was so excited about building his own Lewis/Linford engine that he immediately set out to accumulate enough aluminum to pour the necessary castings by personally trying to empty twenty-two six packs. When he wasn't watching the engine run he was out watering the bushes!
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