I will start by looking at the very start of the word diesel by visiting the Anson engine museum which describes the creation and invention of the first diesel engine
The first diesel engine was designed and made by Rudolf Diesel in 1893 albeit it was very low performance and it didn't really leave the experimental stages for many, many years.
(Anson engine museum 2011) Rudolph Diesel
The first diesel engine was designed and made by Rudolf Diesel in 1893 albeit it was very low performance and it didn't really leave the experimental stages for many, many years.
(Anson engine museum 2011) Rudolph Diesel
A recreation of the first diesel engine at the Anson engine museum. (Photo by Robert Higgins 2011)
This early design of the diesel engine is very reminiscent of the Victorian age and the age of "industry" after seeing it, i am instantly reminded of old locomotives and cotton mills. The large piston wheel design is a very common sight in older movies and other old Victorian designs.
These old locomotive designs are fantastic, even though they don't use diesel as they're main fuel source, they're piston wheel design was Rudolf Diesels major inspiration when creating the diesel engine.
"He referred to the young Frenchman Sadi Carnot (1796 - 1832), who discovered the Carnot' cyclic process, a physical principle that describes the ideal process of the burn in an engine"
While looking at further pictures of these old style diesel engines I found a blog that has found nostalgic robots made from old engine parts .
This blog is full of really interesting things, the author, has dedicated the blog to the mass sharing of interesting information and pictures with no real guidelines or criteria.
The art style on this magazine is really effective, its incredibly simplistic but has a very realistic approach.
While browsing the site i searched for a similar topic from earlier for the locomotives and found this incredible picture of a docked cargo container, :
This is a very innovative way of loading cargo containers, rather than using the traditional winch driven loading cranes, they simply drive the train rail cargo containers onto the ship itself. I assume the process is much faster, albeit at the cost of cargo space.
The container cranes are actually driven solely on (wait for it) Diesel engines. Apparently this method has been around for years, with diesel being the main fuel for these industrial machines.
(Jordan M 1995) Dockside container cranes
The container cranes are actually driven solely on (wait for it) Diesel engines. Apparently this method has been around for years, with diesel being the main fuel for these industrial machines.
(Jordan M 1995) Dockside container cranes
Following the topic of trains and rails in the past, i stumbled upon this, the WW2 era Schwerer Gustav railway cannon: reference here: This mighty railway cannon was developed during world war 2 in order to shell large cities from up to 40 kilometres away. still sticking with the themes of diesel, this grungy rail mounted weapon of war has a very unique design and purpose. (Zimmer, G 1998) Self-Propelled 80cm Gun
While looking into the schwerer gustav and the Anson engine museum, I found that both diesel and petrol were immensely popular during WW2 with almost all vehicles, generators, equipment and and transports all being powered by fuel over electricity, this is definitely something of note for the popularity of diesel as WW2 is an incredibly popular theme for games, movies and books. (Anson engine museum 2011) WW2 engines
While looking into the schwerer gustav and the Anson engine museum, I found that both diesel and petrol were immensely popular during WW2 with almost all vehicles, generators, equipment and and transports all being powered by fuel over electricity, this is definitely something of note for the popularity of diesel as WW2 is an incredibly popular theme for games, movies and books. (Anson engine museum 2011) WW2 engines
Another style for diesel that has been interpreted in the past is "dieselpunk" This art style is very reminiscent of 1940's, although with a very surreal twist such as mechs, floating devices and spaceships. its the idea of futuristic technology but made during WW2. (Gan, R, 2011) What is dieselpunk
this style has a very dirty feel to it and very reminiscent of the older designs from Volkswagen using lots of rivets and small panes of glass. Dieselpunk is also the natural follower of steampunk, an artistic style using obsolete technology, as diesel becomes more and more obsolete, so will the popularity of dieselpunk itself.
After visiting the family for the weekend i visited my uncle who worked in the major Bentley production centre in Crewe as well as working for several other car companies over the years. While looking through his garage for textures and reference he showed my how several variants of engines work including the rotary engine as well as an engine of his own design. The rotary engine was created for aircraft in the early 1900's by using several rotating cogs to create a triangle motion that creates its own compression chambers without the use of pistons. (Channon, G, 2011) Bentley worker and mechanic
My uncle also gave me several old books for motoring from the 1960's, including a copy of "young driver" from 1960, priced at 2 shillings and a sixpence. The book has some fantastic insights into the past of motoring, it also includes a section labelled "a look into the future" which is how they imagined the 1990's would look. (Young driver magazine 1960) Young driver
(Young driver magazine 1960)
This sections shows a surprisingly accurate concept of A large city with motorways and large roads going through it. An interesting idea they had was specialised highways that take advantage of cruise control meaning the driver can sit back and relax. There are some amazing predictions that have actually been implemented including the rate of closure radar for parking and the inclusion of no sharp edges on cars.
(Smith M, 1960) Far out in 1990
This will be very relevant to my research as the pasts prediction of the future will give me some gauge on how accurate or believable my predictions will be.
The scarcity of fossil fuels combined with the constant and over exaggerated scare of global warming and the icecaps melting has been a common plot point in games and movies. A good example of this is "Waterworld" the 1995 film staring Kevin Costner based in a world completely covered by water due to the affects of global warming. (Reynolds K, 1995) Waterworld
The affects of global warming in Waterworld are a lot more over dramatic than it actually is. Although this form of "scare" tactic works very well for media supporting low emission cars and other ways of cutting back global warming. It's almost a form of propaganda.
Other films that use world wide problems or current events are usually, and very frequently films based on modern day or past wars. This trend will surely carry on as it works as a form of propaganda with the "Support our troops" attitude as well as the constant and every available layout for protagonists and antagonists. It also plays on the home countries sense of patriotism. (Dinello C 2010) propaganda and patriotism
These films, such as black hawk down and Hurt locker both share the common goal of "America vs the middle east" and I believe that this trend of film will always continue for most major or minor conflicts in the world.
While looking at the movie Black hawk down I started looking at the helicopter from the title of the film, the black hawk. Made as a jack of all trades helicopter, the black hawk can fill the roles of support and gunship but mainly performs the duty of transport. This Research will benefit my looks into diesel as a fuel source for the military. (Eagle 2011) Black hawk helicopter
The black hawk is a "poster boy" helicopter that is used a lot by the us forces and is the generic US army helicopter in modern media, it is crewed by two pilots, can carry 2,640 lb of cargo internally, including 14 troops or 9,000 lb of cargo externally via a cable and winch system.
(Eagle 2011) Black hawk helicopter
While following the path of transport, I'm going to look into the ideal versions of transport as alternatives to fossil fuel as viewed from the past. As diesel has been sought after to be replaces as far back as 1960.(Smith M, 1960) Far out in 1990
While following the path of transport, I'm going to look into the ideal versions of transport as alternatives to fossil fuel as viewed from the past. As diesel has been sought after to be replaces as far back as 1960.(Smith M, 1960) Far out in 1990
The most idealistic mode of transportation that has been very popular in the past and one of the pinnacle views of "the future" is Teleportation, the ideal transition of instantaneous travel between places A, and B.
(Dowling D, 2009) teleportation is real
(Dowling D, 2009) teleportation is real
Featured A lot in old futuristic films and Tv shows such as star trek, teleportation is an ideal and convenient form of travel. Predictably enough its hard to find solid information about teleportation. There are a lot of theories and similar but impractical tests out there but no real solid ones or even one major theory that the others are based off. (Dowling D, 2009) teleportation is real
The teleportation in star trek seems like the ultimate form of travel, even though the show is based around space travel and space ships. even with the prospect of instantaneous travel, the future ships seem to have some form of a "cheat" button, such as warp speed or light speed. These are usually plot hole fillers in films and games to travel between planets, but there are some game out there that put a lot of thought into a form of science behind it such as mass effect. (Bioware 2007) Mass effect
The mass effect is a fictional reaction based around real ones. (where the game gets its name) that translates energy. The idea is that you can never destroy energy, just translate and convert it, the game uses this with the ability to transfer any amount of energy to any other source.
"a simple paint chip can impact with the same destructive force as a nuclear weapon. However, mass accelerators produce recoil equal to their impact energy.."
This is a very clever theory, it enables the use of high speed interstellar travel using theories that are properly thought out rather than just pure science fiction.
Looking back at diesel in the past and old steam trains that inspired diesels design, i remembered the old cliche' for Christmas toys. The model train set under the Christmas tree, this tradition has been around for generations and is a main feature of a lot of Christmas stories, movies and cards.
My research into the past of diesel has left me with a strong pattern of transport and war as its major purpose and representation in media as well as solutions to replace diesel stretching back to as long as 1960. In my research into the horizon, I will look into the future of the fuel source as well as the by products of diesel such as clothing and alternative fuels.
yes, but how was it demonstrated in various different forms of media?
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