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Diesel Engine Progress In America German Diesel Engineer’s Impressions Not Flattering —Misapprehensions Corrected—Industry Improving N ARTICLE by Dr. Ing. 1. ai Lauster,, published in the Dec. 1} 17 number of the Zeitschrift der Vereinigten Deutscher In- genieur, entitled “Impressions of My First American Trip,” deserves attention. This article in my opinion should not pass without notice and comment due to the fact that it is based on various misconceptions and therefore puts the American diesel in- dustry in the wrong perspective. It is true that the article only in- tends to describe Doctor Lauster’s own impressions, but if his impressions are based on incomplete premises then an injustice is done in the eyes of Euro- pean readers to an industry which is now valiantly developing under handi- caps not of its own making. With a view to righting such a wrong as far as it is possible to do so I desire to present my own views and to comment on Doctor Lauster’s article. I begin with a translation of the article in as near a faithful construc- tion as it is possible to make con- sidering the grammatical and rhetori- eal differences between the two lan- guages and the differences in the use of technical phraseology. Translation from German of Dr. Ing. I. Lauster’s Article As a specialist in the diesel engin? manufacturing field, I was especially interested in the development of this German invention under American con- ditions. This development, as is well known, is proceeding very hesitatingly, although the diesel engine after its advent was supposed to have been taken up with enthusiasm in America, with her giant resources of oil, etc. This phenomenon is due to the fact, as explained in a previous article, that the engine at its inception was too complicated for American operating and maintenance conditions, and as a matter of fact even too exacting for ordinary production. In addition to this there obviously existed a lack of up-to-date “manufacturing processes ”’ After the diesel engine had been in use in the various countries of Europe, The author, J. Barraja-Frauenfelder, consult- ing diesel engineer, submitted this translation and his comments at the request of the editor. 70 By J. Barraja-Frauenfelder in all possible applications, a_half- hearted start was again made for its introduction in the United States. The art at first attained an appreciable impetus about 1910, by the acquisition of manufacturing licenses from Ger- many and later on from other coun- tries. Now there appears to be as far as I can estimate, more than 29 factories (I visited 11 of them) de- voted to the manufacture of diesel engines, up to the largest sizes com- Diesel En gine Economy Lo diesel engine industry in the United States is working out its destiny in spite of many difficulties. Among these are the apparent indifference of the American ship owner and opera- tor to the recognized thermal ef- ficiency of this type of engine. Its superiority over the steam en- gine in sizes up to that used for the largest freighters is now gen- erally conceded. The American shipowner should take advantage of this fact in considering new tonnage and in possible conver- sions to modernize existing ves- sels. While in Europe well over one- half of all merchant tonnage now building is provided with diesel motive power, America strange- ly lags behind, especially in the larger sizes. Competition is go- ing to make it imperative to look to low operating cost and it is vital that all encouragement be accorded our American diesel en- gine builders. parable to our own four and _ two- cycle engines. Smali and medium en- gines are being built without com- pressors, while the larger ones are being built with compressors. For the most part they are modeled after Ger- man types, or after the types of other European makes, licenses of which ar2 held; all with major or minor modification to adapt them to Ameri- can methods. The compressorless construction seems to be to the Amer- ican mind of greater simplicity and this is the reason why greater prac- tical results have been obtained in this direction. The Vickers company, England, have also developed such a MARINE REVIEW—July, 1928 type to a high degree, for which due credit must be given them. Large double acting, two and four cycle, engines -have already been built, but the designers of these units are Europeans and they show their native influence, although they have tried to conform to American ideas as far as possible. It may be said that they have succeeded better in the double acting Worthington engine than in the double acting engine of McIntosh- Seymour design, with certain losses in economy. The latter double acting four-cycle engine is too complicated, the bottom cylinder head and the cyl- inder liner are not very accessible; nevertheless, this engine shows im- portant advantages over the double acting four-cycle engine of Burmeister and Wain design. It appears that the Nordberg com- pany has, until recently, pursued its own design of single acting two and four cycle engines, patterned after European types. They have now ac- quired a license to manufacture from Fiat. Reduction Gearing Is Used The Falk company of Milwaukee are producing engines of its own design, i. e., engines of four-cycle type only, in varying numbers of cylinders and revolutions. In endeavoring to adapt this engine to various purposes, there has been added as a special product, the Bibby coupling and a gear trans- mission. The first named is an elas- tic coupling in order to avoid torsial vibrations and the latter is for use in high speed generating units and for reducing high engine speed to low speed for propelling ships. Lately the design of a transmission containing the reversing mechanism as well, thus sim- plifying the engine itself, has been proposed. Extended evidence of an American tendency is also expressed by this firm in large cylinder units of more than 150 horsepower without piston cooling and airless injection. The Falk design is unusually heavy like most of the other American designs. In general it may be stated that the Americans are not showing a tendency to economize weight. Thin walls in castings obviously make difficulties’ for