Louis Gaston Sabathe (April 3, 1877 in the commune of Vic-Fezensac, Gers department – May 7, 1949 in the town of Épinouze, Drôme department) – French engineer, inventor, entrepreneur, who worked in such fields as: internal combustion engines, medicine, military equipment, printing, etc. He is best known as the creator of internal combustion engines operating on a cycle with a combined heat supply, which is named in his honor the Sabathe cycle.
Biography Sabathe Louis Gaston was born in the commune of Vic-Fézensac, in the Auch district of the Gers department near Toulouse, to 33-year-old farmer Guilhaume Sabathé and his 20-year-old wife, Marie. The mayor of the municipality, Sylvain, in the presence of witnesses, recorded this in the civil registry. At birth, the child gave the name Louis. Later, he would listed as Gaston in census forms, and as an adult, he would sign his name as Louis Gaston.Belousov E.V., Billier P. French engineer Sabathe Louis Gaston and its role in creation of mixed supply engines. Internal combustion engines № 1. 2021. – рр. 92-98.
In 1891, Sabaté was sent to boarding school at a vocational school in the town of Aire in southeastern France, where he excelled so much that he even received a municipal scholarship. After completing his studies, the young Sabaté moved to Paris, settling at 114 rue Vaugirard and beginning work at "Les Industries Biologiques," a company that, despite its name, was primarily involved in manufacturing products for the French military. The young engineer's talents were soon recognized, and he became a member of the mechanical and aeronautical sections of the Technical Division of the Department of Inventions. Sabaté was offered work on new types of ammunition and control systems for submarines and aircraft. He soon turned his attention to the rapidly developing industry of piston internal combustion engines for military and civilian vessels, as well as submarines. Sabathe actively pursued new technical solutions to improve the Diesel engine, which was becoming increasingly widespread by that time. Having received several patents for improvements to this engine, in 1908 Sabathe moved to Saint-Etienne in the Loire department, where he built several engines of his own design at the Usines de la Chaléassicre plant. In 1910, Sabathe returned to Paris, taking with him his young wife, Pierrette Julie Lancon, whom he married on April 23, 1910, in Lyon in the Rhône department. On September 15, 1910, their daughter, Arlette Marie Louise, was born.
Returning to Paris, Sabathe continued his work on improving internal combustion engines, for which he received several patents. With the outbreak of World War I, he established active collaboration with Delahaye. Which was actively developing the production of automobile, tractors and other engineering vehicles for the French Army. As part of this collaboration, Sabathe developed original designs for artillery tractors capable of crossing enemy trenches using special runners.Les sousmarins de haute mer seront munis de moteurs à vapeur. Navigazette. N° 1293, Paris, Boulevard Montmartre 19, 5 Février 1914. – р. 5.
Together with Delahaye's chief designer, Amedee-Pierre Varle, they developed and patented a track module that could install on various vehicles in place of wheels. They also developed an original articulated tank with increased cross-country ability, which, however, did not proceed beyond the model stage.Delahaye’s Tank. https://tanks-encyclopedia.com/ww1-france-delahayes-tank/ In addition to tanks, Sabathe developed mortars, automatic cannons and ammunition for them, as well as other types of weapons. After the end of World War I, continuing to work in the arms industry with Marie-Joseph-Isidore-Xavier de Vésin, in February 1929 he founded the company Société de Mécanique Générale, also operating in the arms market. This line of work is clearly responsible for the secretive nature of this undoubtedly talented engineer.
Sabaté died on May 7, 1949, in the town of Espinouze in the Drôme department.
Sabaté's to the development of piston internal combustion engines The rapidly developing submarine fleet required fundamentally new approaches to the selection and design of propulsion systems to propel a vessel underwater. Sabaté was one of the first to conceive of using internal combustion piston engines for this purpose. To this end, he developed the design and operating principle of a closed-cycle engine, in which an inert gas used as the working fluid, with an oxidizer and fuel introduced into the working cylinder at the end of the compression stroke.Sabathe L.G. Internal combostion engine United States patent US 883,240. 1908 Mar 31.
After the combustion process, the exhaust gas was to be purified of combustion products and reused in the engine. The oxidizer (oxygen) proposed to be stored in pressurized cylinders or produced onboard using chemical methods, such as the decomposition of alkaline peroxides in the presence of water. No documents confirming that this project, so daring for its time, successfully implemented were found. Apparently, faced with serious difficulties, Sabaté forced to return to more traditional methods of organizing work processes based on the use of atmospheric air as the working fluid. However, even with the traditional method of using diesel engines to power marine propulsion systems, engineers also encountered a number of new, at the time poorly understood, problems, which Sabaté tackled.
The fact is that all diesel engines at the time were compressor-based, using compressed air to deliver fuel to the working cylinder. When the engine operated according to a screw characteristic, where power regulated by varying the engine speed, a decrease in speed led to a decrease in the air compressor's performance, which ultimately failed to cover the air consumption for fuel injection. To solve this problem, Sabaté developed a system for regulating air supply depending on the engine's operating conditions. To maintain high efficiency and reduce fuel consumption, he proposed dividing the fuel delivery process into two stages: a first injection with a large advance angle, which ensures combustion of the first portion at a nearly constant volume, and a second injection, which occurs when the piston begins to move from TDC to BDC. As the engine load decreases, the second injection volume reduced until the second injection completely stopped, thereby reducing the amount of air consumed. This approach allowed the maximum cycle pressure to be limited to 50 atm (5.0 MPa) by adjusting the first injection rate, and by varying the second injection rate, engine power could regulated by increasing or decreasing the isobaric region of heat input on the combustion line. As load decreased, by gradually reducing the second injection rate, the engine transitioned to a cycle similar to the Otto cycle, maintaining a high maximum pressure. Sabathe, L.G. Internal Combustion Engine and Method of Operating Tee Same. US Patent 975640, November 15, 1910. Sabaté's pneumatic injector design for a combined heat cycle was patented between 1905 and 1908 in several countries, including France, the United States, and Russia. As with most patents of the time, Sabaté patented not the cycle itself, but a specific design. However, in his patent, he clearly states that this design allows for heat supply first along an isochore and then along an isobar, i.e., a combined cycle. Subsequently, this approach to patent applications has given rise to disputes over Sabaté's claim to the title of primacy in the creation of an engine with a combined heat supply. However, it should be understood that other claimants to the primacy also did not patent a specific cycle. Gustav Trinkler, for example, already postscriptively cited experimental data he had obtained several years earlier. However, he never indicated that his design was specifically designed for such a cycle. A similar cycle was later theoretically described by Myron Seiliger, and some authors would credit him with creating this cycle. However, without diminishing the contributions of the above-mentioned individuals to engine design, Sabaté's engines deliberately implemented a cycle with mixed heat supply, by dividing the cycle feed into two portions fed sequentially to the working cylinder. While the question of who deserves priority for the mixed heat supply cycle remains debatable, Sabaté undoubtedly holds the title of primacy in the use of split fuel injection.Internal combustion engines of modern marine vessels. Textbook for higher maritime educational institutions / I.V. Bilousov, M.Р. Bulgakov // Astroprint publishing house – Odesa, 2024. – 512 p. ISBN 978-617-7797-54-7 Unlike his colleagues, Sabathé proposed a fundamentally new form of organizing the working cycle, and for its implementation a very specific design, planning in advance to obtain a programmed result, and also adapted his engine to very specific operating conditions, namely, to work according to the propeller characteristic.
In order to manufacture engines of his own con-struction for navy Sabathe set up cooperation with large industrionalist, ex-navy engineer Joseph Le-flaive, owner of factories Usines de la Chaléassicre, located in Saint-Etienne, Loire department (Block Bergson, Barrouin str.). Obviously, experienced ma-rine engineer Leflaive, who took active part in devel-opment of new trend (submarine fleet), realized quite quickly the advantages of new type of engines com-paring to steam machines used in first submarines. For manufacturing engines using Sabathe patents there was created joint-stock company Société des Moteurs Sabathé. The founders of joint-stock company were: Vincent Biétrix – Knight of the Légion d'Honneur, art and craft engineer, ex-manager of Forges et Ateliers de la Gbaléaseière; Joseph Leflaive – ex-marine en-gineer, manager of Forgea et Ateliers de la Chaléas-sière; Octave Diamanti – representative of French Government and engineer Louis Gaston Sabathe. The Statute of the company was signed on February 18, 1908 and notarized by Ferdinand Balay from Saint-Étienne and Petrus Bernard from Lion. Registered capital of two million franks was divided among four thousand shares, five hundred franks each. Sabathé provided full rights for his inventions, protected by the patents, as an in-kind contribution for the company. Also Sabathé provided the newly created company with the results of his researches, drawings of the developed engines as well as the rights for engines construction in the framework of previously concluded agreement (dated June 10, 1907) between Sabathé и Établissements Schneider company. In return, the company reimbursed Sabathé’s costs for patents’ obtaining as well as negotiations in America, England, Italy, Germany, Russia and Japan. All these expenses were estimated as 30 thousand franks. Besides Sabathé received 1,600 shares of the enterprise. In order to raise funds for the new production development there were issued shares, and Sabathé was contracted to be Technical Manager, at the same time Leflaive became Managing Director of the company.Sté des Moteurs Sabathé.
Leflaive and Diamanti, using their connections in the Military Department, started promotion of new type of engine for the navy vessels, including subma-rines.