It is believed that this model was built for patent purposes, but that is not mentioned on the brass plate; the use of glass cylinders indicates that it was a way of showing the builder's ideas to potentially interested people.

The use of opposed pistons (the "double" aspect) was not unknown in diesel engines as it offered the possibility of good dynamic balancing, but the Wigzell arrangement is not good from this point of view because of the triangular connecting rods. Small two cylinder vertical engines were commercialised with this arrangement for a time, the transverse waggles of the big end providing the phase difference between the two cylinders, Wigzell clearly took this base idea and applied it to three cylinders.

However, the upper piston in the L.P. cylinder is higher than it should be to match the postion of the lower piston. This shows very clearly that the dynamic balance cannot be fully effective and the engine will vibrate. This phase change also presents problems with valve timing. The big ends would have to deal with large lateral forces for which big ends are not normally designed.