>I read somewhere that "Wasser" was the name of the person who engineered the
>VW engine with pistons that "box" each other, or was that a joke or a myth?
>The German word for water is "wasser" according to the dictionary in
>vanagon.com so when someone said "Wasser" was the inventor's name was he
>pulling our proverbial leg?

As others have said, "wasser" (pronounced vuhzzer, to rhyme with
buzzer) ist Deutsch fur water.

Dunno where "boxer" comes from, but it's nicht Englisch, I believe,
but may well be Italian (pronounced itt-ah-lee-ah) as in Ferrari
Berlinetta Boxer.

Any OPPOSED engine with a single crankshaft (ie pistons outboard of a
single central crankshaft) is a boxer, whether horizontal, vertical
or any inclination in between. It can be 2-stroke or 4-stroke;
sidevalve, pushrod-ohv, SOHC, DOHC or have any other valve design
including rotary valves or sleeve-valves.

An opposed engine with crankshafts outboard of the pistons
(combustion chamber between the crowns of the paired pistons, which
almost touch one another at TDC) is... I dunno... double-acting? I
believe the Napier Sabre engine fitted to das WW2 Englisch Hawker
aircraft (ecxuse me while I puke, bitte) were two of these couppled
together, one on top of the other, and tended to catch fire
spontaneously.

Some boxer engines:
Briggs & Stratton made one
Ferrari flat-12
Porsche flat 4s, 6s & 8s
VW aircooled 4s & Type 25 nondiesel 4s
BMW motorcycle twins
Puch (WW2)    "   (rhymes with chook)
Douglas           "
Lilac               "
Voshkod/Ural  "
Honda GoldWing "
larger Subarus (over 1.0)
some Citroen 4s & twins
Lycoming & Continental aircraft engines
Chev Corvair
Jowett
Ferguson FF 4WD cars
Alfa Romeo Alfasud/33

Can anyone think of others? Hmmm... would a boxer-type engine with an
odd number of cylinders be a true boxer? One cylinder would be
unopposed. Ha! a semiboxer! I've just invented a new engine layout...
--
Andrew Grebneff
165 Evans St, Dunedin 9001, New Zealand
<andrew.grebneff@stonebow.otago.ac.nz>
Ph: 0064 (3) 473-8863 fax: 0064 (3) 479-7527
1986 Toyota Corolla 1.8DX CE80 diesel sedan
1989 Toyota Corolla 1.8DX CE96 diesel van
1989 Toyota Corona 2.0D Select CT170 diesel sedan
1992 Toyota Estima Lucida 2.2 turbodiesel MPV (=narrow "Previa")
1984 VW Caravelle GL (to be fitted with 260hp Subaru SVX flat-6 &
Porsche G50 trans)
Seashell, Macintosh, VW & Toyota van nut
Friends don't let friends do Windows