Herbert Akroyd Stuart 1118626 224312194 2008-07-08T08:14:20Z Thijs!bot 1392310 robot Adding: [[de:Herbert Akroyd Stuart]] [[Image:Herbert Akroyd Stuart.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Herbert Akroyd Stuart 1864 - 1927. Inventor of the hot bulb heavy oil engine]] '''Herbert Akroyd-Stuart''' ([[January 28]] [[1864]], [[Halifax, West Yorkshire|Halifax]] [[West Riding of Yorkshire|Yorkshire]], [[England]] - [[February 19]] [[1927]], [[Halifax, West Yorkshire|Halifax]]) was an English inventor who is noted for his invention of the [[Hot bulb engine|''hot bulb'' heavy oil engine]], or [[vaporizing oil engine]]. ==Life== Akroyd-Stuart had lived in [[Australia]] in his early years. He was educated at [[St. Bartholomew's School|Newbury Grammar School]] and [[City and Guilds of London Institute|Finsbury Technical College]] on ''Cowper Street''. He was the son of Charles Stuart, founder of the Bletchley Iron and Tinplate Works, and joined his father in the business in 1887.<ref>{{cite web | title = Victoria Road | publisher = Bletchley Archaeological & Historical Society | url = http://www.mkheritage.co.uk/bahs/fenny/victoria1.html | format = | doi = | accessdate = 2007-07-29 }}</ref> In 1885 Akroyd Stuart accidentally spilt [[Kerosene|paraffin oil]] (kerosene) into a pot of molten [[tin]]. The paraffin oil vaporised and caught fire when in contact with a [[Kerosene lamp|paraffin lamp]]. This gave him an idea to pursue the possibility of using paraffin oil (very similar to modern-day [[diesel]]) for an engine, which unlike [[Gasoline|petrol]] would be difficult to be vaporised in a carburettor as its [[Volatility (physics)|volatility]] is not sufficient to allow this. His first prototype engines were built in 1886. In 1890, in collaboration with [[Charles Richard Binney]], he filed Patent 7146 for [[Richard Hornsby & Sons|Richard Hornsby and Sons]] of [[Grantham]], [[Lincolnshire]], England. The patent was entitled entitled: ''"Improvements in Engines Operated by the Explosion of Mixtures of Combustible Vapour or Gas and Air"''.<ref name="aoi">{{cite web | title = The Akroyd Oil Engine | publisher = Ray Hooley's - Ruston-Hornsby - Engine Pages | url = http://www.oldengine.org/members/ruston/History6.htm | format = | doi = | accessdate = 2007-07-29 }}</ref> One such engine was sold to Newport Sanitary Authority, but the compression ratio was too low to get it started from cold, and it needed a heat poultice to get it going.<ref>{{cite web | title = Diesel has come a long way but still doesn't get the tax breaks it deserves | publisher = [[The Scotsman]], Scotland on Sunday | date = [[2003-01-16]] | url = http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/business.cfm?id=197272003 | format = | doi = | accessdate = 2007-07-29 }}</ref> Akroyd-Stuart's engines were built from June 26th 1891 by [[Richard Hornsby & Sons|Richard Hornsby and Sons]] as the ''Hornsby Akroyd Patent Oil Engine'' under licence and were first sold commercially on July 8th 1892. Similar engines were built by Bolinder in [[Sweden]] and some of these still survive in [[narrowboat|canal boat]]s. Hot bulb engines in the USA were made by [http://baldwindiesels.railfan.net/magazine-1936/page20.html De La Vergne Company] of [[New York]], later the New York Refrigerating Company - inventing the [[Vapor-compression refrigeration|modern refrigerator]] in 1930, who purchased a licence in 1893. Richard Hornsby and Sons built the world's first oil-engined [[railway locomotive]] [[Moirae|LACHESIS]] for the [[Royal Arsenal]], [[Woolwich]], England, in 1896. They also built the first compression-ignition powered automobile. ===Patent dispute with Rudolf Diesel=== The modern [[Diesel engine]] is a hybrid incorporating the features of direct (airless) injection and compression-ignition, both patented (No. 7146) as ''Improvements in Engines Operated by the Explosion of Mixtures of Combustible Vapour or Gas and Air'' by Akroyd-Stuart and [[Charles Richard Binney]] in May 1890.<ref name="aoi"/> Another patent (No. 15,994) was taken out on October 8th 1890, which details the working of a complete engine, essentially that of a diesel engine where air and fuel are introduced separately. [[Rudolf Diesel]] patented compression-ignition in 1892; his injection system, where combustion was produced [[Isobaric process|isobarically]] (the technique having been patented by [[George Brayton]] in 1874 for his [[carburettor]]), was not subsumed into later engines, Akroyd-Stuart's injection system with [[Isochoric process|isochoric]] combustion developed at Hornsbys being preferred. Akroyd-Stuart's ''compression ignition'' engine (as opposed to ''[[spark-ignition]]'') was patented two years earlier than Diesel's similar engine; Diesel's only patentable idea was to increase the pressure. The hot bulb engine, due to the lower pressures used (around 280 [[Pound-force per square inch|PSI]]), had only about a 12% [[thermal efficiency]]. In 1892, Akroyd-Stuart patented a water-jacketed vaporiser to allow compression ratios to be increased. In the same year, T.H. Barton at Hornsbys built a working high-compression version for experimental purposes whereby the vaporiser was replaced with a [[cylinder head]] therefore not relying on air being preheated, but by combustion through higher [[compression ratio]]s. It ran for six hours - the first time automatic ignition was produced by compression alone. This was five years before Rudolf Diesel built his well-known high-compression prototype engine in 1897. Diesel was, however, subsequently credited with the innovation despite the adduced evidence to the contrary. ==Death== In 1900, he moved to Australia and set up a company Sanders & Stuart with his brother Charles, latterly moving back to Yorkshire. He died of [[Esophageal cancer|throat cancer]] and was buried in All Souls church in [[Akroydon|Boothtown]], Halifax. The [[University of Nottingham]] has hosted the Akroyd-Stuart Memorial Lecture on occasional years in his memory since 1928. One was presented by [[Frank Whittle|Sir Frank Whittle]] in 1946. Akroyd Stuart had worked with Professor William Robinson in the late 1800s, who was professor of engineering from 1890 to 1924 at University College Nottingham. Akroyd-Stuart also left money to the [[Institution of Mechanical Engineers]], [[Royal Aeronautical Society]] and [[Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology|Institute of Marine Engineering]], which provided for their respective bi-annual Akroyd-Stuart Prizes. ==References== <references/> ==External links== * [http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A120145b.htm. Biography] * [http://www.oldengine.org/members/ruston/History6.htm Relation to the Ruston and Hornsby history.] * [http://www.enginemuseum.org/eoe.html History of his Oil Engine] at the [[Anson Engine Museum]] * [http://users.ids.net/~newsm/oil.html De La Vergne Oil Engine used for Marconi's first broadcast] * [http://www.imeche.org/industries/cef/prizeaward/Herbert-Akroyd-Stuart-Prize.htm IMechE Herbert Akroyd Prize (''sic'')] * [http://www.ollerton.co.uk/products.php?id=16 Immortalised by naming a range of bollards after him] * [http://caldernet.org.uk/halifax/halifax_sites_and_sights/all_souls_church_halifax_.html All Souls Church, Halifax] ===Patents=== * * [http://www.google.com/patents?id=05xWAAAAEBAJ US Patent 845140] Combustion Engine, dated February 26th 1907. * [http://www.google.com/patents?id=3ntFAAAAEBAJ US Patent 502837] Engine operated by the explosion of mixtures of gas or hydrocarbon vapor and air, dated August 8th 1893. * [http://www.google.com/patents?id=oe9lAAAAEBAJ US Patent 439702] Petroleum Engine or Motor, dated November 4th 1890. {{DEFAULTSORT:Stuart, Herbert Akroyd}} [[Category:1864 births]] [[Category:1927 deaths]] [[Category:Mechanical engineers]] [[Category:Stationary Engines]] [[Category:People associated with the internal combustion engine]] [[Category:People from Halifax, West Yorkshire]] [[de:Herbert Akroyd Stuart]]