History of Diesel Engines 1952

[GCroyle]

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UiiqiiTDj0A&feature=fvwrel



Gang,



Stumbled on this pretty neat old history lesson. You might enjoy. It also shows the Fire Piston that helped create the idea. We had a fire piston discussion a while back.



Gary

 

[Wayne M.]

That was great. I never really understood the hot bulb engine.

 

[GCroyle]

I never even heard of the hot bulb until this video. Shell put it together and I wonder if the footage of the early diesel that didn't run was from a movie or the actual event? I liked the part where the guy cut the belt after the next version came to life, that would have been a moment to witness. It's Alive!

 

[Bill Stockard]

Yep, I knew about hot bulb diesel engines. In the late 40s and early 50s there were a few in the east Texas oil fields near where we lived running walking beam type oil well pumps. They were a one cylinder very slow running engine and ran for years without stopping and would burn about any low grade petroleum fuel. I remember the operator had to hold a blow torch on the hot plug for quite a while before attempting to start it by spinning the large heavy flywheel. The engines I remembered had a manual compression release petcock on the cylinder to ease starting. Before starting the engine, the operator would open the petcock to lessen the compression and once the engine started, he would quickly close the petcock to return the engine to its full compression. The walking beam gearbox was geared down the speed further and was counterweighted to offset the lift stroke on the sucker rod that operated the piston/cylinder down inside the relatively "shallow" well.

What is amazing is the progress from the end of that film to today's modern diesel engine.

Bill