Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-21T22:43:18.626Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The two prime movers of globalization: history and impact of diesel engines and gas turbines

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 November 2007

Vaclav Smil
Affiliation:
Faculty of Environment, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3T 2N2Canada E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

Modern economic globalization would be impossible without our ability to move billions of tonnes of raw materials and finished goods among the continents and to fly at speeds approaching the speed of sound. These realities were made possible by the interaction of economic and technical factors. Much has been written about their organizational and political underpinnings (ranging from the role of multinational corporations to the history of free trade agreements), but much less on the history of the two prime movers that made these realities possible. Neither steam engines, nor gasoline-fuelled engines could have accomplished comparable feats. Diesel engines made ocean shipping the cheapest mode of long-distance transport and without gas turbines there would be no fast, inexpensive, mass-scale intercontinental travel. This paper examines the history, advances, benefits and costs of the two prime movers.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Weatherford, Jack, Gengis Khan and the making of the modern world, New York, Three River Press, 2004, p. 267.Google Scholar

2 Richard, Alley et al., Climate change 2007: the physical science basis, Geneva: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2007.Google Scholar

3 Friedman, Thomas L., The world is flat: a brief history of the twenty-first century, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005.Google Scholar

4 Vaclav, Smil, Energy in world history, Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994.Google Scholar

5 Smil, Energy, p. 231.

6 Otto, Nicolaus A., Improvement in gas-motor engines. Specification forming part of Letters Patent no. 194,047, dated August 14, 1877. Washington, DC: US Patent Office.Google Scholar As with all US patents, a complete filing is now easily available at Google Patents.

7 Sass, Friedrich, Geschichte des deutschen Verbrennungsmotorenbaues von 1860 bis 1918, Berlin: Springer, 1962.Google Scholar

8 Wood, Jonathan, Great marques of Germany, New York: Gallery Books, 1985, p. 89.Google Scholar

9 Gunston, Bill, The development of piston aero engines, Sparkford, UK: Patrick Stephens, 2001, p. 105.Google Scholar

10 Dickey III, Philip S., The Liberty engine 1918–1942, Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1968.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11 Taylor, Michael J. H., ed., Jane’s encyclopedia of aviation, New York: Portland House, p. 606–7.Google Scholar

12 Meyers, Robert A., ed., Handbook of petroleum refining processes, New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004.Google Scholar

13 Franz Mandl, F.Statistical physics, Chichester: Wiley, 1989, pp. 121–3.Google Scholar

14 Clerk, Dugald, ‘Oil engine’, in Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition, vol. 20, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1911, pp. 25–43.Google Scholar

15 Wärtsilä, ‘Wärtsilä RT-flex96C and RTA96 (24,000-80,080 kW)’, 2007, http://wartsila.com(consulted1March2007);MANDiesel,‘Products’,2007, www.manbw.com/engines(consulted1March2007)

16 Lavine, Sigmund A., Kettering: master inventor, New York: Dodd, Mead, 1960.Google Scholar

17 Midgley, IV, Thomas, From the Periodic Table to production: the life of Thomas Midgley, Jr., the inventor of ethyl gasoline and freon refrigerants, Corona, CA: Stargazer Publishing, 2001, p. 26.Google Scholar

18 Kovarik, William, ‘Ethyl-leaded gasoline: how a classic occupational disease became an international public health disaster’, International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, 11, 2005, pp. 384–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

19 Chevron Products Corporation, Aviation fuels: technical review, San Ramon, CA: Chevron Products Corporation, 2000.Google Scholar

20 Scanlan, Robert H. and Rosenbaum, Robert, Introduction to the study of aircraft vibration and flutter, New York: Macmillan, 1951.Google Scholar

21 Taylor, Jane’s, pp. 338–9.

22 Taylor, Jane’s, pp. 606–7.

23 Graham Cowell, J., D.H. Comet: the world’s first jet airliner, Hounslow: Airline Publications, 1976.Google Scholar

24 Diesel, Rudolf, Die Entstehung des Dieselmotors, Berlin: Springer, 1913, pp. 1–2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

25 Diesel, Eugen, Diesel: Der Mensch, das Werk, das Schicksal, Hamburg: Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt, 1944.Google Scholar

26 Lüders, Johannes, Der Dieselmythus: Quellenmässige Geschichte der Entstehung des heutigen Oelmotors, Berlin: M. Krayn, 1913Google Scholar; Riedler, Alois, Dieselmotoren: Beiträge zur Kenntnis der Hochdruckmotoren, Wien: Verlag für Fachliteratur, 1914.Google Scholar

27 Crozet-Fourneyron, Marcel, Invention de la turbine, Paris: C. Béranger, 1924.Google Scholar

28 Lyle Cummins, C., Internal fire, Warrendale, PA: Society of Automotive Engineers, 1989.Google Scholar

29 Parsons, Charles A., The steam turbine, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1911, p. 11.Google Scholar

30 Bryant, Lynwood, ‘The development of the Diesel engine’, Technology & Culture, 17, 3, 1976, p. 446.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

31 The original German patent (DRP 67,207), ‘Arbeitsverfahren und Ausführungsart für Verbrennungskraftmaschinen’, was issued on 28 February 1892; the US patent 608,845, filed on 15 July 1895 and issued on 9 August 1898, is now accessible in its entirety at Google Patents.

32 MAN (Maschinenfabrik Augsburg Nürnberg), ‘MAN group overview’, 2007, www.man.de/index.php?id=714&L=1

33 Marine Log, ‘Selandia (1912)’, 2007, www.marinelog.com/DOCS/cen2.html(consulted5March2007)

34 MAN (Maschinenfabrik Augsburg Nürnberg), ‘MAN group overview’, 2007, www.man.de/index.php?id=714&L=1

35 Schildberger, Friedrich, Bosch und der Dieselmotor, Stuttgart: R. Wunderlich, 1951.Google Scholar

36 Hamilton Ellis, C., The lore of the train, New York: Crescent Books, 1977, pp. 203–4.Google Scholar

37 Smil, Vaclav, Transforming Vaclav Smil, Transforming the 20th century: technical innovations and their consequences, New York: Oxford University Press, 2006, pp. 208–14.Google Scholar

38 Bunker, John Gorley, Liberty ships, New York: Arno Press, 1972.Google Scholar

39 Ratcliffe, Mike, Liquid gold ships: a history of the tanker, 1859–1984, London: Lloyd’s of London Press, 1985.Google Scholar

40 MAN B&W Diesel, Propulsion trends in tankers, Copenhagen: MAN B&W Diesel, 2005.

41 MAN B&W Diesel, Tankers, pp. 10-11.

42 MAN B&W Diesel, Propulsion trends in bulk carriers, Copenhagen: MAN B&W Diesel, 2006.Google Scholar

43 Smil, Transforming, p. 222. Three recent books examine in detail the globally transformative impact of this innovation: Frank Broeze, The globalisation of the oceans: containerisation from the 1950s to the present, St John’s: International Maritime History Association, 2002; Levinson, Marc, The box: how the shipping container made the world smaller and the world economy bigger, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006Google Scholar; Cudahy, Brian J., Box boats: how container ships changed the world, New York: Fordham University Press, 2006.Google Scholar

44 MAN B&W Diesel, Propulsion trends in container vessels, Copenhagen: MAN B&W Diesel, 2004, p. 1.

45 Maersk Line, ‘Regina Maersk’, 2007. http://about.maersk.com/en/Fleet/Container/ContainerPostPanamax/SeriesK/ReginaMaersk.htm (consulted 9 March 2007); Maersk Line, ‘Emma Maersk’, 2007. www.maerskline.com/link/?page=brochure&path=/about_us/facts_and_figures/emma_facts(consulted9March2007)

46 MAN B&W Diesel, Container vessels, pp. 7–8.

47 Barry Rogliano Salles, ‘The containership market in 2005’, 2006. www.brs-paris.com/annual/annual-2006/container/container-a/container-a.php(consulted9March2007)

48 Nahum, Andrew, Frank Whittle: invention of the jet, Cambridge: Icon Books, 2004, p. 95Google Scholar; Anonymous, , ‘First practical gas turbines’, New Steam Age 1, 1, pp. 910, 20.Google Scholar

49 Smil, Transforming, p. 66.

50 Fulton, Kenneth, ‘Frank Whittle (1907–96)’, Nature 383, 6595, p. 27Google Scholar; Whittle’s US patent (2,404,334, ‘Aircraft Propulsion System and Power Unit’) is readily accessible at Google Patents; the best website devoted to Whittle’s achievements is maintained by the Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, ‘Sir Frank Whittle OM KBE CB FRS’, www-g.en.cam.ac.uk/125/achievements/whittle/whitt-r.htm(consulted11March2007)

51 The precarious existence of Power Jets, Whittle’s company, its eventual nationalization and subsequent development of British jet engines are described in detail in Nahum, Andrew, Frank Whittle: invention of the jet, Cambridge: Icon Books, 2004, pp. 23–51 and 108–32.Google Scholar For different perspectives on these events see Whittle, Frank, Jet, London: Frederick MullerGoogle Scholar; Golley, John and Whittle, Frank, Whittle, the true story, Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1987Google Scholar; and Constant, II, Edward W., The origins of the turbojet revolution, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980.Google Scholar

52 Conner, Margaret, Hans von Ohain: elegance in flight, Washington, DC: AIAA, 2001.Google Scholar

53 Nahum, Frank Whittle, pp. 102–3.

54 Meher-Homji, Cyrus B., ‘Anselm Franz and the Jumo 004’, Mechanical Engineering 119, 9, 1997, pp. 8891.Google Scholar Pioneering contributions of other German engineers – Wagner, Herbert and Schelp, Helmut – are described in Wolfgang Wagner, The history of German aviation: the first jet aircraft, Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 1998Google Scholar, and in Constant, Turbojet revolution, pp. 195–207.

55 Loftin, Laurence K., Quest for performance: the evolution of modern aircraft, Washington, DC: NASA, p. 410.Google Scholar

56 Nahum, Frank Whittle, pp. 145–53; an easily accessible illustrated account is Royal Air Force Museum, ‘Comet – the first jet airliner’, 2003, www.rafmuseum.org.uk/london/exhibitions/comet/index.cfm(consulted13March2007)

57 Including 737, the most successful jetliner in history, the pioneering wide-body jumbo 747 and the soon-to-be-launched 787, the most efficient passenger aeroplane ever. Boeing’s corporate website with details on its commercial aeroplanes is at www.boeing.com/commercial/index.html

58 Sample, Frank R. and Shank, Maurice E. 1985. Aircraft turbofans: new economic and environmental benefits. Mechanical Engineering, 107, 9, pp. 4753Google Scholar; Coalson, Michael S., ‘Jets fans’, Mechanical Engineering Supplement: 100 Years of Flight, pp. 16–17, 38.Google Scholar

60 Smil, Vaclav, Energy in nature and society: general energetics of complex systems, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, p. 375.Google Scholar

61 Details on the development of GE90-115B and its technical specifications are available at: Horibe, Kyohei et al., ‘Development of GE90-115B turbofan engine’, IHI Engineering Review, 37, 1, 2004, pp. 18Google Scholar, and at GE, ‘Model GE90-115B’, 2007, http://www.geaviation.com/engines/commercial/ge90/ge90-115b.html(consulted12March2007).EnginesmadeforsuperjumboAirbus380areratedeitherat374kN(RR’sTrent900)or363kN(GP-7200,ajointGEandP&Wproduct),bothwith8.7bypassratio:RollsRoyce,‘Trent900’, www.rollsroyce.com/civil_aerospace/downloads/airlines/trent_900.pdf(consulted11March2007)

62 Vaclav Smil, Energy in nature and society, p. 375.

63 Institute for Accelerating Change (IAC), Realizing the future of exponential promise, Culver City, CA: IAC.Google Scholar

64 Moore, Gordon, ‘Cramming more components onto integrated circuits’, Electronics, 1965, 38, 8, pp. 114–17Google Scholar; Intel., 2003, ‘Moore’s law’, Santa Clara, CA: Intel., www.intel.com/research/silicon/mooreslaw.htm

65 Smil, Vaclav, Creating the twentieth century: technical innovations of 1867–1914 and their lasting impact, New York: Oxford University Press, 2004Google Scholar; Edgerton, David, The shock of the old: technology and global history since 1900, New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.Google Scholar

66 British Petroleum, BP statistical review of world energy 2007, London: BP. www.bp.com/worldenergyGoogle Scholar

67 Izuta, Takeshi, Progress in marine transportation, Tokyo: Taiyo Shosen Kaisha, 1967, pp. 19.Google Scholar

68 US Energy Information Administration, U.S. imports by country of origin, Washington, DC: EIA, 2007, http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pet_move_impcus_a2_nus-ep00_im0_mbbl_m.htm (consulted 2 August 2007).Google Scholar

69 World Coal Institute, ‘Coal facts 2006 edition’, 2007, www.worldcoal.org/pages/content/index.asp?PageID=188(consulted13March2007); Heideloff, Christel and Stockman, Dieter, ‘ISL market analysis 2005: major shipping countries’, Shipping statistics and market review, 10, 2005, pp. 36.Google Scholar

70 Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, Coal industry in the UK, 2007, www.dti.gov.uk/energy/sources/coal/indsurty/page13125.html(consulted3August2007),

71 National Bureau of Statistics, China statistical yearbook, Beijing: China Statistics Press, annually.Google Scholar

72 Heideloff, Christel and Stockman, Dieter, ‘World seaborne container trade and port traffic’, Shipping statistics and market review,6, 2006, pp. 15.Google Scholar

73 Calculated from data in World Trade Organization, International trade statistics 2001, Geneva: WTO, 2001, pp. 29–30.

74 Scott, Robert E., The Wal-Mart effect, Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute, 2007.Google Scholar

75 ICAO, ‘Special report: Annual review of civil aviation’, ICAO Journal, 61, 5, 2006, p. 10.Google Scholar

76 ICAO, ‘Special report’, p. 12.

77 International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), ‘Civil aviation in 1969’, ICAO Bulletin, 25, 5, 197, p. 46Google Scholar; Boeing, , Statistical summary of commercial jet airplane accidents: worldwide operations 1959–2005, Seattle, WA: Boeing, 2006.Google Scholar

78 John Croft, ‘US FAA to end ETOPS range restrictions for qualified aircraft’, Flightgobal.com, 9 January 2007, www.flightglobal.com/articles/2007/01/09/211460/us-faa-to-end-etops-range-restrictions-for-qualified.html(consulted13March2007). This means that airlines can chose fuel- and time-saving direct routes that will put twin-engine planes more than three hours from the nearest airport during a part of their journey.

79 Koff, B. L., ‘Spanning the globe with jet propulsion’, Arlington, VA: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1991, p. 2CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lee, Joosung J. et al., ‘Historical and future trends in aircraft performance, cost, and emissions’, Annual Review of Energy and Environment, 2001, 26, pp. 167200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

80 Volga-Dnepr Airlines, headquartered in Ulyanovsk, is Russia’s, and the world’s, leading provider of outsize and heavy global airlift using its 10 Antonov-124 planes; since 1990 it has served clients ranging from UN to NATO, and from Exxon to Airbus. See www.volga-dnepr.com/

81 ICAO, ‘Special report’, p. 10.

82 Abraham, Thomas, Twenty-first century plague: the story of SARS, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005.Google Scholar

83 Brownstein, John S.et al., ‘Empirical evidence for the effect of airline travel on inter-regional influenza spread in the United States’, Public Library of Science Medicine, 2006, 3, p. 10, doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0030401Google Scholar

84 US Geological Survey, ‘Zebra mussels page’, 2007, http://nas.er.usgs.gov/taxgroup/mollusks/zebramussel/(consulted 15 March 2007).

85 Peterson, A. T., Scachetti-Pereira, R. and Hargrove, W. W., ‘Potential geographic distribution of Anoplophora glabripennis (Coleoptera : Cerambycidae) in North America’, American Midland Naturalist, 2004, 151, pp. 170–8.Google Scholar

86 Vaclav Smil, ‘Peak oil: A catastrophist cult and complex realities’, World Watch, 2006, 19, pp. 22–4. Kerr, R. A., ‘The looming oil crisis could arrive uncomfortably soon’, Science, 316, p. 351.Google Scholar

87 This movement embraces such diverse strands as slow food (for its programmatic statement see: ‘Il manifesto dello slow-food’ http://editore.slowfood.it/editore/riviste/slowfood/IT/19/articoli/slowfood19_05.pdf), eco-agriculture, seasonal eating and resurgent farmers markets. The case for local food is made by Halweil, Brian, Eat here: reclaiming homegrown pleasures in a global supermarket, Washington, DC: Worldwatch, 2004.Google Scholar