Old film on the history of the diesel

[85Hokie]

I ran across this youtube video by accident - reminded me of the old films we watched in 3rd grade with the sound and film being somewhat "off"

the history of the diesel - watching those old very heavy machine doing work - to me is amazing.

the original diesel engine was designed it to run on plant oil .... what a concept for the day.

And what is not mentioned is that Rudolf Diesel somehow "died" on the way to England to help them with the diesel engine power that he did not wish the Germans to have. Whether he was pushed or jumped, kinda makes you think about the pressure he must have been under at that time in history.

 

[OrangeKrush]

That was very interesting.. always neat to see an original film of the old days and how it was made.
Maybe a dumb question.. was the heat bulb similar to our now glow plug? Makes sense to me I think, but I'm not much of a diesel mechanic or any other for that matter.lol My two Kubota's are the only diesels I've ever had.

 

[Motion]

I ran across this youtube video by accident - reminded me of the old films we watched in 3rd grade with the sound and film being somewhat "off"

the history of the diesel - watching those old very heavy machine doing work - to me is amazing.

the original diesel engine was designed it to run on plant oil .... what a concept for the day.

And what is not mentioned is that Rudolf Diesel somehow "died" on the way to England to help them with the diesel engine power that he did not wish the Germans to have. Whether he was pushed or jumped, kinda makes you think about the pressure he must have been under at that time in history.

You commented on the German connection, which is true, but also the American oil companies had a vested interest, he was running his engines on vegetable oil plus other products, they new first hand they could be replaced. They the ones that got rid of the whale oil business.

 

[random]

I've read that modern diesel engines can run on vegetable oil too. Anyone know about that?

 

[85Hokie]

I've read that modern diesel engines can run on vegetable oil too. Anyone know about that?

Absolutely - there are a few small things that you need to change but nothing major.

THE biggest problem is filtering the used oil - which can be a slow process until you have some larger equipment.

 

[OrangeKrush]

Absolutely - there are a few small things that you need to change but nothing major.

THE biggest problem is filtering the used oil - which can be a slow process until you have some larger equipment.

Yeah them fries could really plug things up!

 

[skeets]

Yeah a guy that worked at a local mine was a self proclaimed tinker. He built his own geothermal system to heat and cool the house. And he had a VW diesel and a Ford truck diesel, and picked up used cooking oil, and built some kind of filter. I dont know what he did to them but you could always tell when he went past. Anyone that was following him had a sudden urge to stop at Mickie Ds and get a bag of french fries

 

[OrangeKrush]

Yeah a guy that worked at a local mine was a self proclaimed tinker. He built his own geothermal system to heat and cool the house. And he had a VW diesel and a Ford truck diesel, and picked up used cooking oil, and built some kind of filter. I dont know what he did to them but you could always tell when he went past. Anyone that was following him had a sudden urge to stop at Mickie Ds and get a bag of french fries

My brother in-law use to collect the used oils around his town and turned it into "bio diesel" to heat his house..

 

[skeets]

Do they still give that stuff away or want you to pay for it now ?

 

[OrangeKrush]

Do they still give that stuff away or want you to pay for it now ?

Good question.. I'm sure their catching on!

 

[Jriedy85]

I've read that modern diesel engines can run on vegetable oil too. Anyone know about that?

Guy I work with converted his Diesel Ram to run on veg oil. He would go to fast food restaurants and take their used oil then refine it so it was clean. He had a tank for veg oil in the bed of his truck so he could just flip a switch to go between using diesel or veg oil. it was pretty cool.