Diesel's first Engine
The Genesis of the idea is the joyful time of creative work of the mind, as everything seems possible because it still has nothing to do with reality. -Rudolf Diesel
Rudolf Diesel created an engine on paper which proclaimed his invention of a highly efficient prime mover. It was the first heat engine, either of external or internal combustion that from conception had been based on the science of thermodynamics sired by Sadi Carnot.
In these early stages of engine development, (Carnot’s time) the efficiency of a typical engine was a mere 3%. Today many people would consider this a waste of a valuable resource, but many of theses same people willingly support squandering the public treasury on far worse investments. The recent examples seem as numerous as rainy days in April.
Consider reading the book titled Diese’s Engine by Lyle Cummins ISBN 0-917308-03-4
As I sit here thinking about what Rudolf Diesel said so many years ago, I reflect again on the minds who maintain the EV1.org page on the WEB. Have they any idea how much a pound ways? Have they ever owned a measuring cup of their own?
We live in a time when money power and influence trumps everything. People who have taken the time to study history with intensity suggest that’s the way it’s always been, and perhaps that’s why Mr. Diesel was killed and tossed overboard the night before he was to dock an attend a meeting? Maybe Mr. Diesel was less flexible than many of the Scientists of our day, I can only imagine how he would fit in as a bureaucrat at the EPA, would he willingly sing praise to those who controlled his purse? Just how much of a problem was it to finance his experiments of the day?
I reflect on a recent paper that MIT produced, it said the Diesel is likely to be the most efficient and practical portable prime mover through 2040. That doesn’t mean it won’t still be in 2050!
Today, we know the Diesel engine was a secret weapon of sorts, allowing far more work to be done that ever before with fuel measured in volume or weight. We know of the battles and wars lost, because the losing side couldn’t carry the provisions required. We know the Diesel engine is instrumental in feeding the world, and without it, many will perish. Part of the reason is the fuel has been reasonable in price up till now, and our wonderful work horse can run well on such a wide variety of fuels, those who wish to tax those fuels, or control diesel fuel hate that FACT.
Just how many will not be able to afford food soon? How many were just barely able to afford it last year? 50,000 can starve to death beyond our borders, and it’s not news worthy. People starve in India every year, it may not even be news worthy in the four major English-speaking news papers there, not because the Indian people are heartless, but because it happens so often it’s not news worthly.
Before Diesel’s engine, oil engines were wasteful, being far less efficient, and we all know that steam engines might have used a variety of different fuels, but their efficiency was terrible in comparison. How to stock or carry enough fuel for the job or journey? Efficiency was closer to 10 percent for these old steam plants of yesterday, and the modern-day wonders that were developed out of Diesel’s design can operate at near 55% according to some reports! ‘Waste not want not’ some say, but today it seems the EPA is far more focused on measuring the amount of C02 produced than the concern of waste.
It seems they are able to ignore vast underground coal fires, that spew huge amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. Why do they ignore what nature does, and why don’t they pump some water on it? I guess I’d attempt to answer by saying they can’t tax the fires that mother nature set, and perhaps that is the real goal?
As of this April, has the EPA changed the game? Is the Diesel finally on it’s way out, and might it be replaced with less efficient power plants of the past? OR.. will the EPA make it possible for the diesel to power things like our hybrid cars with even more efficiency and less emissions?
In yesterday’s post, it was mentioned that the EPA still deems the waste oil burners legal, but now they make illegal the use of all fuels other than low sulphur diesel in Maritime Diesels operating within 200 miles of any USA coast line, and that includes Islands like Hawaii too.
Of course the other thing I think about is that legal waste oil burner, hot as hades itself, and the EPA has blessed them for the moment, Just what happens when you plumb the exhaust of your diesel through the turbo, and use both the exhaust and that blowing fresh air to feed the fire box of that waste oil burner? Will it burn those soot particles that cause so much concern?
Perhaps, there’s a new generation of Cargo ships on the horizon, the Diesel, Steam Turbine Hybrid, the boiler runs at very high temperatures and is used to clean up the diesel exhaust, and still allow the operator to use traditional bunker fuels. Or how about a new class of fast electric tugs that tow ships from the 200 mile limit into and out of American ports using 20 million nickel metal hydrate batteries? Come on, 20,000,000, that’s a really small number compared to the national debt!
Laugh now, but there’s likely a grant writer preparing a study for such a tugboat, and when you see that the DOE granted them 10 million dollars or more to study the idea, you’ll wish you had taken time to write your proposal. You didn’t buy Starbucks, and you sold your Apple stock long ago.. maybe this is your oppurtunity to do it right? Don’t you wish you could buy ‘GROWTH STOCK’ in the EPA?
Here’s another page on Carnot
Have a great day!
GB
It’s good to see that Diesel’s work is still alive, his birthday is March 18, 1858.
This is exactly 100 years to the week that I was born (:-O.
Diesel’s Engine is the book to have.
Ben,
The study of Diesel’s work is an immunization that every student should to forced to take. We have a world wide epidemic which now threatens our very existence.
It has struck hard in Germany, and threatens many other countries as well. The disease manifests as a brain malfunction, but in reality, it’s a scientific fact that the brain has only been starved of basic needs on which all quality thought depends.
Carnot gave us this vision of falling water, something we could measure and know the potential work that could be done. With this most basic understanding, we can use math we learned in grade school to measure the work our machine does and know of it’s efficiency. In the process, we learn, there is no magic, there is no Peter Pan or Never Land. How sad it is that half the world believes, but their willingness to sit and watch politicians squander the wealth that took hundreds of years to create could destroy us all.
The term I have for the movement is ‘Gang Green’.
For those who are not too lazy to study Dr. Diesel, there’s another brilliant study that I have been recommending…. what makes it most exciting is it’s a current event and still in play. As your peers drink beer and watch everything from Hollywood to Dollywood. I’ll share my simple theory. (Remember, at the time of this writing, it’s still legal to have these thoughts, and even share them here. This is what I think is going on, we’ll all know the truth very soon.
It was all so easy for the Sharks to prey on Amonix, the offer of capital and publicity was likely more than they could resist. Soon, they are a big story, and a Green Energy Fund Manager is dropping their name. As I said before, and I’ll say again.. most of the Alternative blogs are run by those who cut and paste.
Here’s the test, and don’t I know that 10 people maybe less will ever read this far…. the Amonix website is still up, there’s plenty to read, and the entire website should be preserved for future study. Their claim to fame is CPV, the company recently announced that they had targeted dry and arid land as the place where their technology enjoys an advantage over their competition. WHY???
The gang Green world was silent, not a single question they would ask.. I searched through the blogosphere, and I could find only one smart woman from California no less, that seems to know and understand the technology! She’s smart all right and seemed to know if she said too much she might need to find another employer.. she ended her well written article on the CPV tech by saying.. “We shall see”.
Here’s what you will see.. (my Prediction)
• Amonix has installed their last tracker
• Their factory floor will be considered an embarrassment by politicians who ‘used’ Amonix as political capital, they’ll be making backroom deals to move new faces in.
• We’ll learn that Amonix lost a lot of money on their “worlds largest CPV install”. Who will care to ask of the losers and winners?
• Who’s still on the Amonix pay roll? And who has already slipped out the back door? Will we care to note whether they are Sharks moving on to the next pond, or do they actually care to benefit mankind through providing a return on investment for those who invest in the dream?
At the end of the day, we find that we can divide all of mankind into two basic groups, those who are skeptical, and those who are gullible. The debate is never really over, but critical thinking, well, that never really happened for so many, you can turn on TV, you can see them at rallies, the empty look in their eyes, and not a single care who their masters really are.
Yes, utterpower does get the biggest response to articles written about gears and wires, and stuff we do for ourselves, but of great importance is the reason we do for ourselves.. and that’s the root of so much I write here.
It was just the other day that I exchanged emails with an engineer that worked at that plant gone idle. That huge an empty site was where President Obama landed what looked like an invasion force to visit Solyndra. Perhaps another good story might be told about the EPA in California, and how they have harassed companies to the point of pulling up stakes and moving on, and closing critical operations. Remember that operation that produced rare earth? Just how long does it take for a company to realize that California is the WRONG place to do business?
Once you identify a Shark follow him to the next school of prey! While others are at the movies learning that vampires have no reflection in the Mirror. You should be watching budget meetings in Government. Sharks refuse to attend, most need threatened with having their fins cut off to be seen seated anywhere near a table where balancing the budget is being discussed. I have more respect each day for the French, they developed a machine that proved that their ruling class made more thoughtful decisions without their heads!
Have a great day..
G