Engine Porn! - Another Internet Epidemic

When internal combustion engines were ultimately produced, the technology was based heavily on that of steam engines.
Richard Stone, Introduction to Internal Combustion Engines, Second Edition, p. 8

Suck, squeeze, bang and blow! Just reciting the mnemonic of the actions of the four stroke internal combustion engine makes the Oracle of Ottawa all tingly. And you bet, it is all for my own selfish gratification, all mine, to wallow in and enjoy for hours at a time. And of course, as in all pursuits of force and power, and the strokes that go with them, the Oracle of Ottawa has his fetish's. The Oracle of Ottawa loves the immense and full bulk of large prime movers, because torque is your friend. And the Oracle of Ottawa truly loves maturity and long lived elegance. There was never a clip of vintage steam and early internal combustion engines that the Oracle did not like.Of course the Oracle also really has a thing for the legacy creators of Germany and the rest of Europe. And the Oracle will readily admit that he swings both ways with respects to spark ignition (SI) and / or compression ignition (CI). Hey? We are all adults here aren't we?

Lenoir Engine - Lets try this....

 Just what is it about a lump of cast metal with cylinders that have pistons injected into them that makes so many men go nuts? What is it about the sound of a large Electro Motive Diesel starting right up on a cold morning that keeps you coming back for more and  more? Could it be that that Karl Jung was totally right when he suggested that large machines and engines have anima? The Oracle of Ottawa can assure you dear reader that it is especially true of ships, especially warships. A happy ship will be happy no matter who is on it, and a shit ship will be hell no matter who you put on it. But I digress.

The Oracle really started getting into engine porn due to You-Tube. The bastards! I constantly enjoy myself in a very secret way and to add insult to injury, I actually learned a ton of useful facts and information! Why it is getting so advanced, that the Oracle of Ottawa has actually dug up some texts on his book crawls, pertaining to the history and the stories of various developments. And much to the surprise of the Oracle you always read in any text on engines, whether it is modern or vintage, that at some point the author admits that what goes on in an engine of whatever kind is still not completely known! Imagine that?

As in all great inventions, that eventually change the world, science and its methods hardly had anything to do with it. This was brought home to the Oracle just last night when he re-watched The Secret Life of Machines - The Internal Combustion Engine, when Tim Hunkin  related the story of how Etienne Lenoir invented the first internal combustion engine by ripping out the steam feed pipe to a steam engine and replacing it with a tube from the gas lamp! There is no indication that he was holding an advanced text on fluid flow and thermodynamics at the time! So there! Just like Edison and the light bulb. Have idea, try idea, no matter how crazy science might say it is. That is how shit really gets done.

Now this method certainly didn't stop with the 19th century pioneers. A fascinating example occurs again in the 1980's when Keith Duckworth of  Cosworth Engineering when he and the lads developed the V6 and V8 turbo from scratch! Just enter the name(s) at You -Tube and you will find the documentary which the Oracle of Ottawa found utterly absorbing. Then after that you might want to check out the excellent videos from Nelsons Racing Engines, but, be warned, that shit is super hard core! They manufacture street engines that dyno out at over 1000 horse power!  

Seeing the rich expanses of the past, what ever does the future hold? The Oracle of Ottawa strongly suspects that we missed something really obvious. And it is going to be some "garage-ist" watching You-Tube videos and puttering in his basement workshop that is going to blow the doors of the 21st century wide freakin' open...