THE DIESEL STORY

[Music] for most of us living means working so to get the most out of life men look for a way of making machines do some of their work wi answer but it was not always reliable they turned to another form of energy and discovering that heat could drive machines they they opened up a great new reservoir of reliable power new industries were born and New Towns built to serve them the arrival of the heat engine changed the whole way of life for people in many parts of the world the first practical heat engines were driven by steam fed on coal and water they were the foundation of the new Industrial Age day and night they worked pumping driving turning consuming consuming thousands of tons of coal during the 19th century coal was by far the best fuel available it also yielded a valuable byproduct gas for lighting and heating but this gas was now used for another purpose as a source of gas engine patented Auto and Langan in 1860 for years men had been trying to do away with boilers and to burn fuel in inside the cylinder Now cal gas made this possible but these early internal combustion engines were temperamental and their power output was too limited to challenge the power of the steam engine it was not until 1877 when Otto adapted the principles of the fourstroke cycle theory of the French scientist B to Russia that a really practical internal combustion engine was built the auto silent gas engine as it was known was the Forerunner of all modern fourstroke engines first stroke induction a mixture of gas and air is drawn into the cylinder second stroke compression third stroke power the mixture is ignited and expands driving the Piston outwards for stroke exhaust with the discovery of petroleum a new source of power was born and the internal combustion engine developed rapidly similar in principle to the gas engine the gasoline engine had the advantage of utilizing an easy to handle fuel thus it was ideal for use in the motor car in contrast to the gasoline engine another type of internal combust an engine was built in 1890 designed by Acro Stewart this machine was used for driving stationary power plants it ran on a heavier petroleum Fuel and was known as the hot bulb oil engine the engine comprises a vaporizer or hot bulb from which the hot gases pass through a narrow passage into the working cylinder in the cylinder is a piston joined by a connecting rod to the crankshaft and a heavy flywheel before starting the vaporizer is heated by a blow lamp to high temperature the fly wheel is then turned over by hand pure air is sucked into the working cylinder and the oil fuel is sprayed into the hot bulb during the second stroke air and vaporized fuel are mixed together and compressed the high temperature in the vaporizer causes combustion and the Piston is forced outward by the expanding gases finally the burnt gases are expelled from the cylinder once the engine was running the heat retained in the hot bulb was enough to ensure combustion and the blow lamp was no longer necessary these simple engines could run for long cods at a constant speed and they gained a wide reputation for reliability the 19th century saw enormous progress in the development of heat engines of all kinds and towards its close there were four main types in general use the oil engine with hot bulb vaporizer the steam engine which was still considered Supreme for a wide variety of uses the gas engine for stationary power plant and the rapidly improving gasoline engine all these engines worked on the same basic principle of turning heat into work but in each case the amount of heat turned into work was small the efficiency was low 6% for the average steam engine 10% for the oil engine 177% for the gas engine engine and 12% for the gasoline engine looking at these facts Rudolph diesel was certain that it should be possible to build an engine with a very much higher efficiency th he was convinced of four things he must get away from the steam engine entirely combustion must take place inside the cylinder air not steam must be the working medium and and finally the air must be highly compressed so as to permit the greatest possible expansion he remembered the pneumatic match or fire piston a small cylinder usually made of wood or glass into which a closely fitting piston or plunger could be inserted the head of the Piston was recessed so as to hold a piece of dry Tinder when the air in the cylinder was highly compressed it became so hot as to cause the Tinder to ignite the fire piston gave a clue to a practical means of securing combustion inside the cylinder compression ignition diesel adapted this principle to the internal combustion engine and described the cycle for the first time in 1892 a downward stroke of the Piston pure air is sucked into the cylinder the air is then compressed to the point where it reaches the temperature necessary for combustion fuel is introduced into the compressed air owing to the high temperature it takes fire and produces heat which is turned into work during the fourth stroke the spent gases are forced out of the cylinder the first experim experimental engine was built at Augsburg in Germany during 1893 most people were convinced that no machine would work at the high pressures which diesel insisted were necessary for combustion and essential for high thermal efficiency [Applause] sh [Applause] this engine never ran under its own power one of the main problems facing diesel arose from the high pressure inside the cylinder an exact quantity of oil fuel had be sprayed finely and accurately through a dense wedge of compressed air it was found that the fuel pump by itself could not do the job effectively so an air pump was added which could blow the fuel into the combustion chamber the principle was similar to that of a perfume atomizer the method was known as Air Blast injection by 1894 a completely new and redesigned engine had been built and preparations were complete for the first trial run look out I will and [Music] in spite of this setback and all important fact had been demonstrated compression ignition was a practical way of securing combustion and an engine could be made to work on this cycle by 1897 the first reliable engine had completed its tests limitations in engineering methods had made some modifications necessary nevertheless the engine had an efficiency of 27% far higher than any other engine of the day [Music] by the turn of the century the diesel engine was in regular production the first models built under license were large single cylinder units with a maximum speed of less than 200 revolutions per minute manufacturers in various countries made some modifications to the original design and a few horizontal engines were built these were reminiscent of actroid Stewart's earlier engine but with much higher compression and no hot [Music] [Applause] bulb the diesel was ideal for driving electric generators with the rapid expansion of electrical power there was a demand for larger engines with more than one cylinder with the development of more power engineers soon realized that the diesel could be adapted for marine work by 1912 the first oceangoing diesel ship had been built [Music] the Candia of 7,400 tons was built at Copenhagen by berme and [Music] Wayne her maiden boys to Bangkok created a sensation in the Marine World and marked the beginning of a close association between the diesel engine and the Sea within a a few years hundreds of new vessels fitted with these engines were to be launched from shipyards all over the world today one ship in every four is diesel driven the success of the marine diesel was due partly to the adoption of the two-stroke cycle for large high power engines during the first stroke the air inside the cylinder is highly compressed injection then takes place toward the end of the power stroke the burnt gases Surge from the cylinder and are replaced by the incoming charge of pure air the first stroke is the same as the compression stroke in the for cycle engine the second stroke combines power exhaust and induction and completes the cycle the advantage of the two stroke cycle is that it allows a working stroke for each Revolution and therefore delivers more power for a given engine size but more power was not the only requisite there was a demand for smaller and faster engines for certain purposes comparatively light engines for submarines had been built before 1920 but the Air Blast injection system was cumbersome inefficient and unsuited to high speeds there seemed to be a limit to progress in this direction during the 20s however a new system of airless injection was perfected and the Air Blast method was superseded the so-called jerk type pump meters an exact quantity of fuel which is delivered at High pressure and broken into a fine spray at the injector nozzle the injection pulse is synchronized with the engine speed the development of precision airless injection was a landmark in diesel history here at last was the opportunity to build an engine which would be light as well as powerful 10 years of hard work and patient research were necessary before the high-speed engine could go into regular production these engines are more sensitive than the low speed types and a great deal of work on combustion problems and the development of new fuels and lubricants was necessary then there were other aspects for example trucks tractors and small boats fitted with high-speed diesel engines may have to work in regions with temperature well below zero practical tests of starting and running at these low temperatures were carried out in special Laboratories this is only one example of a vast field of research and experiment which lies behind the production of the Modern Diesel today engines of all types and sizes are in large scale production throughout the world medium speed engines for Express trains small highspeed engines for trucks and buses diesels for tractors and bulldozers and agricultural machines miniature engines for model cars and model aircraft huge double acting types for generating electrical power and for driving ships two stroke and fourstroke engines for 100 use the diesel has had a reputation efficiency and reliability like every other machine it owes much to the past to acoid Stewart whose early work laid the foundation for the solid injection engine to the Pioneers who how to turn heat into work to the scientists who learned about the nature of heat to the engineers who have adapted their theories to practice and to the petroleum technologists who have constantly developed new and better fuels and lubricants it is through their work and knowledge that we have the Modern Diesel the most efficient and most versatile of all heat engines the [Applause] [Music]