Langsamlaufende, doppeltwirkende Zweitakt-Dieselmotoren in der deutschen Handelsflotte. Teil 1

Abstract

The development and employment of double-acting diesel engines can justifiably be regarded as testimony to great innovative power, not only on the part of the merchant marine and the navy at the time in question, but also on the part of the energy industry. It is interesting to note in this context that more than a hundred years elapsed between the first thoughts expressed by James Watt on this technology and its realization in diesel engine construction. The decisive step for manufacturing a reliable engine of this build - i.e., given the progress of technical know-how at the time, the act of summoning the courage to do so was taken in the first decade of the twentieth century. This circumstance is all the more astounding in view of the fact that the step was considered extremely risky by all involved; after all, the construction and calculation tools commonly in use today did not yet exist. All that remains to us of the present is to marvel at their willingness to continue the testing despite the difficult and risky conditions. The decisions made back then would have been out of the question today, already on account of the legal situation alone. Viewed from the present-day perspective, the initial development, testing and employment of double-acting diesel engines was thus in most cases a dangerous and risky game. Nevertheless, after World War I, and after the resumption of the work of developing a double-acting diesel engine to the stage of a safe and reliable combustion engine, the matter came increasingly to the attention of civilian commercial shipping. As a consequence, with the commissioning of the MAGDEBURG in the mid 1920s the worldwide breakthrough of this technology was unstoppable. Part 1 of these reflections revolves around Rudolf Diesel's licensees - pioneers in the development of the low-speed, double-acting, two-stroke diesel engine - and the leading manufacturers. It also takes a brief look at the first two (experimental) vessels with engines of this type. The second part, scheduled to appear in the next issue, will include a thorough list of the author's source materials. Its chief focusses will be two consortia that pursued aims of a not entirely selfless nature in the period shortly before World War I, the application of the insights on the further development of the engine gained by the end of the war, and the substitution of the low-speed, double-acting, two-stroke diesel engine with one of a single-acting design with exhaust-gas turbocharging.