Diesel Engines

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 492, 23 October 1928, Page 7

Diesel Engines

English Experiment for New Power Unit Important developments in con nection with a new type of motorengine are predicted in England shortly. The experiments now being car ried out by the Sunbeam Com pany and others, says the motor ing correspondent of the “Daily Mail/’ are based on the Diesel principle, which does away with both magneto and carburettor, and consists of obtaining combustion by extremely high compresSion and using crude oil. When one considers the marvellous | degree of efficiency to which the mod- ■ ern internal combustion engine has been developed, with its 4,6, S and even 12 cylinders, its smoothness and silence of operation and its flexibility, it may come as a surprise to many to learn that a coterie of eminent engineers in England, France and Germany is convinced that its supremacy is about to be threatened by the Diesel principle. Actually the Diesel engine has been combustion engine, it does not operate hand in hand with the petrol engine. Although the Diesel is an internal combusion engine, it does not operate on the same priciple as the power units at present employed for automobiles. [ in which the charge of petrol-vapour • and air is drawn into the cylinders j from the carburettor, ignited by an j electric spark, and burnt instantane- j ously. In the case of the Diesel engine, only pure air is drawn into the cylinder and compressed, and oil fuel is then injected as a fine spray into the highly compressed air. Germany, through the Mercedes Benz factory, is already turning out lorries fitted with Diesel type engines, one of which—the only one in Australia —has given some splendid demonstrations in Sydney. A passenger in an automobile should sit still and say nothing because any other course is fraught with danger, says an American judge. Interference by laying hold of the operating lever, or by exclamation, or even by direction ; or inquiry is generally to be depre- ' cated, he adds, as in the long run the 1 greatest safety lies in leaving the ] driver alone. i