Harry Ricardo
Sir Harry Ricardo (born January 26, 1885 in London - † May 18, 1974 ) was one of the first engine developers and researchers in the early years of the development of the internal combustion engine.
The founder Harry Ricardo
Harry Ricardo, Henry Royce and Frederick W. Lanchester were British engineers whose work had a profound impact on the international development of internal combustion engines. Harry Ricardo has been honored repeatedly for his significant achievements in the course of his life as an engineer, scientist and inventor. Still, his name is unknown even to most professionals today, although they all benefit from his revolutionary inventions in transportation.
One reason for this low profile is that Harry Ricardo preferred to work as an independent consultant. His name was never directly associated with a car or an airplane. Behind the scenes, however, his work for world-famous companies such as Rolls-Royce , Vauxhall , Bentley , Bristol , Napier & Son , Citroën and Fiat earned him respect and a high degree of credibility. His reputation came not least from numerous engine projects for military and civil use during the war years.
The beginnings
In 1906 Harry Ricardo had a special two-stroke engine patented. It took two years for the Two-Stroke Engine Company (GmbH) to register. The company was founded by Harry Ricardo himself, his cousin Ralph Ricardo, his uncle Herbert Rendel as well as Fielding Thorton and Norman Thornton. The company headquarters have remained in Shoreham-by-Sea, England since 1907, even if the current Ricardo plc is no longer connected to the original company premises. The company was founded to build and sell the Dolphin automobile, which was equipped with the two-stroke engine patented by Harry Ricardo. This motor soon found use in many of the fishing boats built in Shoreham, until almost every fisherman had a Dolphin motor in their boat. The units were ideal for long journeys at low speed and also prove to be extremely reliable. However, the outbreak of the First World War brought the career of the 2-stroke Dolphin engine to an abrupt end. For Harry Ricardo this Dolphin episode was a disappointment, but not a catastrophe, as he had seen his future early on in a different field. The Two-Stroke Engine Company was an opportunity for him to gain practical experience in construction and development.
In addition, Sir Alexander Rendel (Harry Ricardo's grandfather) gave up his retirement plans in August 1914 in order to support his partners Frederick Palmer and Seymour Tritton with the stressful everyday life in their engineering company. During World War I, Rendel, Palmer & Tritton had great responsibility for the design, procurement and delivery of locomotives, wagons and other railroad materials. Sir Alexander Rendel died in January 1918 at the age of 89.
The slow decline and eventual death of his grandfather made Harry Ricardo aware that he had reached a turning point in his life. The offer to join his grandfather's company as a partner still existed, but at that time Ricardo was already so focused on combustion engines that the step into the company seemed impossible to him. Anyway, it looks like young Ricardo knew what his future career would be like even before the outbreak of World War I. Ever since his connection with Professor Hopkins in Cambridge, he had the idea of opening his own engine research laboratory. Senior engineers such as Windeler, Chorlton, Bryant and Kidner reinforced his intentions and assured him full support in the realization. If the business development was successful, Ricardo could count on well-known companies such as Peter Brotherhood, Crossley Brothers , Mirrlees, Bickerton & Day and Vauxhall Motors to hire him as a consultant. In 1913 he arranged temporary financial assistance from a community of investors and bankers. The company known as "Ricardo Developments" consisted of Harry Hetherington, Campbell Farrar and Frederick Goodenough. In 1914, Alan Archibald Campbell-Swington was named director of the company. The original board of directors consisted of Campbell-Swington (board of directors), Harry Ricardo (technical director), Campbell Farrar (managing director), Lord Combermere and three others named Stuart de la Rue, Bertram Beale and RH Houston. All of these directors were friends of Farrar and Campbell-Swington.
Initially, the start of the Ricardo company was very sluggish, as the military situation in 1915 was uncertain. Despite licensing agreements with companies like Rolls-Royce and Armstrong-Seiddeley, the plan to open a laboratory was put on hold. However, the following years should completely change the situation. In 1917, Harry's prospects and at the same time those of the company improved through an aircraft engine design for the Aviation Ministry and participation in new engines for the Armaments Ministry.
1915 to 1920
In 1915 Ricardo received the order from the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) to design a device with which tanks could be brought into position on railway wagons. Previously, he had developed a new hydraulic lifting system that caught the attention of the RNAS. A variant of this lifting device, so the thought, would be suitable for maneuvering the tanks into the right place.
In fact, Harry Ricardo discovered various problems with the tank engine himself, which he quickly fixed. For example, the valve- controlled 105 hp engine from Daimler Motor Company had an inadequate lubrication system, which primarily caused bearing defects. The only remedy that the designers had provided was an overdimensioned oil flow, which resulted in a lot of oil getting into the outlet channel and the position of the tank, especially from the air, was immediately recognizable by a blue cloud of smoke. Ricardo designed a new valve-controlled four-stroke engine that delivered 150 hp - without any visible smoke development. Around 8,000 of these engines were made for tanks such as the Mark V and Mark IX , and even more were used as drives for generators in workshops, hospitals and warehouses. The success of this engine prompted Harry Ricardo to purchase a piece of land in England in 1919 to set up a development laboratory.
In 1918 and 1919 Harry Ricardo developed a unique engine with a variable compression ratio. His research in the field of fuels led to the development of a fuel rating index, the octane number in use today . He also invented a cylinder head design with a turbulent cylinder head, which was specially designed for the combustion process of side valve engines. This invention would earn the company royalties for 15 years.
1921 to 1930
In 1921 Sir Harry's colleague, Major Halford, competed on the Brooklandsbahn with his Triumph 500 and a special racing fuel that Ricardo had developed for Shell. Spurred on by the success, the two designed and built a new cylinder, piston and cylinder head with a roof-shaped four-valve combustion chamber for the motorcycle. Halford easily won the next race with the new machine, and Ricardo received an order from Triumph to incorporate some features into the well-known Triumph Ricardo series machine, which was sold in large numbers.
Vauxhall's ultra-modern luxury motorcycle in 1923 was entirely developed by Ricardo - after Ricardo had already successfully designed the 3-liter racing engine in the Vauxhall TT. The four-cylinder motorcycle with 960 cm³ had a cardan drive to the rear wheel.
1931 to 1940
In 1931 Ricardo developed the historically and technologically significant Comet swirl chamber process for heavy diesel engines on behalf of the AEC so that these engines can also be used in London city buses. The engine of the first series-produced diesel passenger car - Citroën Rosalie from 1935 - was based on a design by Ricardo with the Comet mk.III combustion chamber.
Three years later, Ricardo advised Alfa Romeo on the crucial design phases of the successful 3-liter V16 racing engine for the 1940 Grand Prix season. The engine was based on the sketches submitted by Harry Ricardo, and the detailed design of the valve train was essentially based on Ricardo's Recommendations.
1941 to 1950
In 1941 Ricardo carried out crucial development work for an extremely compact V12 two-stroke petrol engine from Rolls-Royce. The engine with valve control produced an output of 222 hp per liter, but never went into series production because it was overtaken by the development of the aircraft gas turbine.
Ricardo also worked with Frank Whittle to solve various problems that occurred in 1941 with the development of the jet engine. One of these was the control of the fuel mixture in the event of changes in altitude, a challenge that Ricardo solved with the “barostat”, which automatically lowered the pressure of the fuel supply when climbing. In the following years Ricardo was very closely involved in the development work for gas turbine fuel systems.
The record diesel vehicle from 1936 "Flying Spray" was the vehicle with which Captain George Eyston set a new speed record for diesel-powered land vehicles. With the high-performance diesel engine, the V12 “RR / D”, which Ricardo had developed for Rolls-Royce, it reached a speed of 159 mph (256 km / h) on the Bonneville salt flats in the US state of Utah.
After 1950
1953 Ricardo was awarded the James Watt Medal .
Some time later, in the 1960s, Ricardo and Peugeot worked together to create a pioneering engine for the 1970s, which was equipped with a significantly optimized version of Ricardo's “Comet” swirl chamber. Also in the 1960s, the Jensen FF, the first production vehicle with all-wheel drive, came onto the market. This all-wheel drive came from FF Developments, a member of the Ricardo Group.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ cf. Reynolds, John: Engines & Enterprise - The Life and Work of Sir Harry Ricardo, 1999. p. 63
- ↑ cf. Reynolds, John: Engines & Enterprise - The Life and Work of Sir Harry Ricardo, 1999. p. 98
- ↑ cf. Reynolds, John: Engines & Enterprise - The Life and Work of Sir Harry Ricardo, 1999. p. 103. The company was founded under the name Engine Patents Ltd. on February 8, 1915
- ↑ cf. Reynolds, John: Engines & Enterprise - The Life and Work of Sir Harry Ricardo, 1999. p. 88
- ↑ cf. Reynolds, John: Engines & Enterprise - The Life and Work of Sir Harry Ricardo, 1999. p. 131
- ↑ cf. Reynolds, John: Engines & Enterprise - The Life and Work of Sir Harry Ricardo, 1999. p. 162
- ↑ cf. Reynolds, John: Engines & Enterprise - The Life and Work of Sir Harry Ricardo, 1999. p. 190
- ↑ cf. Reynolds, John: Engines & Enterprise - The Life and Work of Sir Harry Ricardo, 1999. p. 233
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Ricardo, Harry |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Ricardo, Sir Harry (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British engineer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 26, 1885 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | London |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 18, 1974 |