In 1909, in Turin Fanz Miller made a 50 hp air-cooled, 4-cylinder, in-line engine used on the Aerosurvo Ponzelli-Miller aircraft.

-First in 1908, he made a vertical crankshaft radial that gave 100 CV.

-Mr. Franz Miller is the creator of Officine Miller and the four-cylinder fan-shape engine that gave 40 CV of power shortly before 1910. The engine was designed by Antonio Chiribiri.

“Franz Miller's 4 cylinder engine”

-It used the 4-stroke cycle and each cylinder had 100 mm bore by 130 stroke.

-Each cylinder formed an angle of 50° with its neighbor and the firing order was 1-3-2-4.

-The explosions were not regularly spaced, more as we will see, the rhythm of the explosions is not a shocking irregularity.

-We start from the moment when the first cylinder (1st from the left) makes the explosion, cylinder number three will do it 100 degrees later, since each cylinder is at 50°.

-Cylinder 2 fires 310° later, and after another 100° the fourth cylinder does.

-We have then that the ignition succession occurs as follows: 0 ° -100 ° -410 ° -510 ° and again 0 °.

-A little "gallop" at low rpm and smooth at high rpm.

-Comparing this rhythm with that of a 4-cylinder V-engine of the time, for example with two groups of two cylinders offset by 90°, we have that the ignition occurs at the following angles: 0° -90° -360° -450° and again 0°.

-We see that the irregularity of the Miller engine is less than that of his contemporary engines.

-The 40 CV was delivered at 1,150 rpm. At 800 rpm the specific consumption was 270 gr/CV/hr, which was very remarkable considering that the control mechanisms were very remote and without valve crossings.

-In running order it weighed just over 70 Kg.

-The Miller company, it is said, made other engines with a power over 100 hp.

-Antonio Chiribiri was chief mechanic at Oficine Miller between 1909 and 1910. In 1910 he founded his own company.

From Appendix 9: In the main text is a schematic drawing of the fan-shaped 4-cylinder Miller engine. Now we have found a photo of this engine in an Italian publication from the year 1912 of Boloventa: “Storia dell’aviazione”.

“Antonio Chiribiri and the Miller 4-cylinder engine”