Abstract: A fluid operable engine has a cylinder in which a piston slides up and down. The cylinder has a cylinder wall and two end walls. The piston divides the cylinder into two chambers. The piston is hollow, has a cylindrical wall and two end walls, with a rigid tube extending from and through one end wall of the piston through an adjacent end wall of the cylinder so that the interior of the piston communicates with the exterior through the tube. The cylinder has an aperture in each end wall or in its cylindrical wall close to the end walls and the piston has an opening in each of its end walls. A closure member is provided for alternately closing the openings or the apertures as the piston reaches each end wall. The engine is operated either in a positive or negative manner, with fluid being charged into or sucked from the piston or the cylinder. The openings may be closed from within or without and the apertures may be closed from inside or outside. The closure member may be mechanically or fluid operable.