Twilight of the Steam Age, Part 1: Internal Combustion

https://technicshistory.com/2024/03/21/twilight-of-the-steam-age-part-1-internal-combustion/

by cfmcdonald • 2 years ago

68 9 2 years ago

johnea• 2 years ago

Kinda sad that we're still in that victorian era tech 8-/

mjfl• 2 years ago

When I joined the physics major at college, I didn't really know what was taught in the physics field. I was disappointed when it wasn't about internal combustion engines and nuclear reactors.

Animats• 2 years ago

Not much on Diesel.

Also, not much on steel. It's amazing that the steam-powered industrial revolution was built with iron, not steel. Early engines had very low operating pressures. Some even just condensed steam and ran below atmospheric pressure. Attempts to operate at higher pressures resulted in leaks at best and boiler explosions at worst. The materials were just not good enough. Otto's 1862 engine would run for only a few minutes before breaking itself. Some later engines used the power stroke to lift a heavy weight, and as the weight came back down, it powered the output through a ratchet. Using that big burst of power from the power stroke needed much better materials. Otto finally got a cylinder-crank-flywheel engine working in 1876. Here's a working Otto engine of that original design, cranking out 7 horsepower.[1] Note all the shiny machined steel parts. That design would not work in iron.

Today, crankshafts, main bearings, pistons, piston rods, and piston rings are solved problems. It took about half a century to get all those parts to work reliably, and a full century before engines outlasted the rest of the vehicle.

Internal combustion pressures are higher, and Diesels have far higher pressures than gasoline engines. The materials problems are tougher. Without strong steel, Diesels are hopeless.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH3U49n4g2M

actionfromafar• 2 years ago

Stationary diesel engines could still work in iron don’t you think?

The cylinder walls could be very thick.

HPsquared• 2 years ago

Diesel engines have pretty much always been made of cast iron. It's the most common material for the engine block. Cast iron, not steel. The more hard-wearing parts (crankshaft, rods, bolts, camshafts, piston rings) are steel. Maybe they could use wrought iron, but with a lot of difficulty.

russdill• 2 years ago

The previous "chapters" on steam already covered the metallurgy extensively. And this is only part one. It hasn't even gotten to gasoline.

Arrath• 2 years ago

Oh very nice, I loved this blog's earlier series on steam power and was wondering if they would ever continue it!

goodSteveramos• 2 years ago

“The conservatives in several states, after crushing the liberal revolutions of 1848-1849, introduced industrial regulations to resurrect the traditional rights of craftsmen.”

This section confused me. I thought it was illiberal conservatives that were teamed up with big business and capital against the small time craftsmen. What does defeating the liberals have to do with pushing back against capital?

cfmcdonald• 2 years ago

Author here. I'm by no means an expert on 1848 politics, but I got this information from the cited source (Hamerow, "Restoration, Revolution, Reaction"). Quoting 191-192:

"In industry conservatism could afford to do more than merely outliberalize the liberals. It bid boldly for the support of the urban proletariat by reintroducing corporate regulation of production. Through the association of an economic with a political reaction it hoped to create a mass following for the policy of counterrevolution. Hence the royalist victory in Prussia was followed by the promulgation of the two emergency measures of February 9 revitalizing the atrophied guild system." (etc., it goes on to cite similar post-1848 regulations imposed by other German states.)

Twilight of the Steam Age, Part 1: Internal Combustion

Related Stories