Valves on vintage Lincoln cylinder heads

[indigochim]

Can anyone tell me what the small valves on each cylinder are for in the below image?

It's a 1920's Leland design fork and blade engine from a Lincoln L series car.

[LarJammer]

That's where you add a drop of extra fuel for cold starts.

[indigochim]

Ah ok, thanks. Is that what you'd keep in what I had assumed was an oil can on the firewall?

[2xChevrons]

Yep, 'priming cups', I believe they're called.

You can either fill the little spherical cup at the top with petrol, then open the valve, which delivers a priming dose of petrol right into the combustion chamber, or you can squirt a few strokes of engine oil from a can through them, which sits on the rings and increases the compression.

[indigochim]

Interesting, there's some fascinating engineering on these old things and what amazed me was how clean the engine looked without the use of plastic beauty covers to hide everything.

Jay Leno covers the priming cups at about 8mins 55 in this video. Easy to find something when you know what you're searching for .

[crankedup5]

Plenty of engineering experimentation from the early days of motoring, some good and some not so good. For example sleeve valve engines are brilliant when they are working correctly but do require certain dedication.
Any chance of some images of the car?

[indigochim]

Sorry it's not mine image is from here

[crankedup5]

^^^^^
Thanks.