Memories of an Oil-engine Pioneer
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Few People Can Claim to Have Had Such a Long Experience With Oilengined Vehicles as has the Author of This Article. Therefore His Views are of Unusual Interest
THEeditorial leader entitled " What Future for the Oil Engine? " published in " The Commercial Motor " dated jitly 7, is a very able one, and recalled teethe mind of one of the very early pioneers many memories and anecdotes of a strenuous but most interesting time.
The writer, in conjunction with the late Mr. A. R. Fearnley, of Sheffield, was able to get going the first oil' engined bus put into public service. This had a Mercedes-Benz engine specially imported from Stuttgart. Incidentally, through his efforts, also, the first oil-engined lorry was put on the road by the concern of Major and Co., of Hull.
Reverting to the main subject of the leader, there can now be no shadow of doubt that the future of the oil engine is both assured and brilliant. The long list of its great advantages are too well known to need repetition here.
Despite the fact that great improvements and discoveries are being made by our petroleum chemists, resulting in a higher octane fuel and considerable increases in permissible compression ratios, and whilst there is a bright era of inventions in many other directions, it is hard to visualize any serious competitor to the oil engine for a long time to come.
Oil Eiines for All Heavy Vehicles?
With many thousands of oil-engined vehicles on the roads already, and hundreds, if not thousands, more to be produced as soon as the war is over, practically all heavy vehicles and the larger buses will be equipped with this form of power unit. When considering the possible conversion of thousands of lighter goods vehicles and small buses, we are up against the fact that the simtaller the engine the greater is the expense of producing it, as it does not lend itself to mass production. This would probably mean raising the price of such vehicles considerably beyond the existing figures for petrolengined machines. However, it is reasonable to assume that this difficulty will be surmounted in due course.
. It is a well-known fact that the way of the pioneer is a hard one, and the writer's experience was no exception. Driving a heavy oil-engined lorry (an early one, which was very noisy) for thousands of miles up and down the country, and talking "oil engines" for hours on end to hard-bitten haulage men and transport engineers was only part of the thorny road. Many of these men, after actually seeing the results, remained sceptical and could not be convinced that the oil engine was a genuine proposition.
The first demonstrotion vehicles were of Continental make, and this did not help matters much so far as we were concerned, because most Britons preferred home products.
One of the most important develop ments in the growth of the oil engine was the all-British achievement in connection with direct injection, or what is known as the " open-cylinder "
design. The foreign engines, 'which were first on the road, were all of the pre-chamber type, and some of them presented serious disadvantages. German engineers of the Mercedes-Benz concern informed the writer that they were firmly convinced that it would not be possible to produie a direct-injection engine suitable for road transport. They based their belief on the supposition that such engines would produce too much smoke and would not start without special heating devices. They did not seem to know that for some years before 1928 a well-known firm of British engineers had been carrying out a great deal of research work on this very problem, and had reached the definite conclusion that direct injection was not only feasible, but quite satisfactory. They also proved that the, engine could be made smokeless and able to start immediately from cold.
When the time comes to tell the whole story, we shall hear what a fine part theie engines have played in the war, for many uses apart from ,road transport.
Many BUilt Engines But Few Survived
In the early days many British concerns decided to enter the oil-engine field, and the results were huite interesting, but not always highly successful. It requires a great deal of hard experience to design and produce a really good engine of this type, and this experience had to be bought, sometimes dearly. In one instance, an engine, after ,pulling its load for a few miles, literally fell to pieces. In another case the smoke of the exhaust was soterrible that, on one occasion, the police thought the bus was on fare and ordered it off the streets. In this particular area a fishmonger actually had to close his shop because the smoke had tainted all his fish.
Not everyone "played cricket," and it was reported some years ago that one maker deliberately endeavoured to copy the successful design of a competitor, and, apparently, made a sad mess of it. This, however was the only case of this nature which came to notice.
Naturally, in the early days there were many failures and breakdowns. One dl the most serious troubles was with big-ends, as a result of lack of experience in designing such bearings for high pressures.
Another ,early cause of trouble arose from endeavouring to build engines which would be interchangeable with 'existing types of petrol engine, so that the chassis dimensions would not require to be altered. This resulted in having to " crush " the engine and reduce the bearing dimensions below *hat were necessary. [Since that time further and much more successful efforts have been made in this direction, and types have been developed which have successfully replaced petrol units of similar size.—En.] Early Mistake Was Too High R.P.M.
A further mistake was that of trying to make these engines run at speeds comparable with those of petrol units.
This created much trouble. Here,. again, those with proper experience knew that speeds had to be governed to certain limits, and to-day it is usual to run oil engines at maximum speeds of 1,700-1,800 r.p.m.
Those operators who had courage and foresight in the early days, when the fuel cost only 4id. per gallon, made good profits, and in many cases, as a result, were able' to build up fine fleets of vehicles. Others, who failed to take advantage of this early harvest, found that the fuel had risen to almost the price of petrol, hut they still had an ample margin as a result of the great fuel economy of the oiler.
The writer was once " caught " during the demonstration period pre viously mentioned. After a vehicle owner had examined the oil-engined lorry, he asked for a practical test with a load of six tons to a place some 70 miles away. The result was quite satis factory. Then this user asked for another load to be taken a similar dis
tance. This also was done, but nothing further developed; Later it was aster
tamed that the man in question was in the habit of using demonstration vehicles to perform part of his haulage work, and this at no cost to himself ! However, the trade soon became wise to such unfair methods.
In 1941 a reliable authority estimated that approximately £l0,000.000 per year was being saved in liquid-fuel costs by the employment of the oil engine in road transport alone. Yet, despite all these apparent advantages, which are well known to the industry, many haulage men are still running heavy vehicles on petrol. It makes one wonder why this is the case.