The Diesel Engine in a New Sphere.

Progress, Volume I, Issue 3, 2 January 1906, Page 57

The Diesel Engine in a New Sphere.

When the Diesel engine was first brought before the public, great expectations were not unnaturally entertained as to the possibilities of applying it to automobile propulsion. These expectations have from various causes not yet been realised. The Diesel engine presents great possibilities. It consumes practically any kind of fuel and has a great flexibility, from both of which points of view lorry builders and engineers, concerned with the design of the heavier classes of automobile vehicles, have always kept an eye upon it. The fact that it has not hitherto been successfully applied to selfpropelled traffic is perhaps mainly due to the weight of flywheel necessitated, and to the difficulties of starting involved by the high degree of compression at which the engine necessarily works, and of the consequent need for compressed air storage for starting it The Diesel engine, however, has, it is now reported, been successfully applied to locomotive propulsion m the United States. The locomotive itself appears to be something on the Heilmann principle, that is to say, the engine is employed to operate a dynamo which m turn supplies electric current to motors geared to the driving wheels. In the particular locomotive which is now, we understand, running on the Southern Pacific Railroad, a 4-cylmder Diesel engine is employed, and is at present running on crude petroleum oil from the wells Of course, it is a long way from a locomotive to a motor car, and it is possible that the Diesel engine may possess peculiarities which suit it for locomotive propulsion, even though the difficulties that have up to the present stood in the way of applying it to automobiles may not yet be got over, but the successful

While the business possibilities m motor vehicles for agricultural and haulage work in this country are sufficiently encouraging to induce manufacturers to give special attention to this branch of the automobile industry, the needs of such mechanism are far more pressing m certain of the colonies where vast areas have to be cultivated and animal power is not easily obtainable. This is the case with many parts of Africa, whence inquiries are constantly being received for self-propelling, tilling and other requisites. From the British East African Protectorate, for instance, there is a demand for motor ploughs capable of being dismounted for camel transport, while in India interest has been taken in mechanically propelled ploughs, which would certainly find a good sale if suitable types were put on the market. For the moment, the motor plough is in a purely experimental stage, and although one or two are now under construction there is no actual data yet available to show what the motor plough is capable of doing. We hope, however, to be able to give an account of trials of a new motor plough which, we are assured, will shortly be ready for practical work.