Inventors Diesel, Otis and Carrier

My daughter excitedly mentioned the other day: “Papa, we have improved so much in technology since olden times, right?”. Yes, lot of technological evolution has indeed happened over the centuries, lot of inventions leading up to this technologically advanced world that we live in today. A lot of it though, we take it for granted. Diesel engine, without which no logistical advancement would have happened; Air conditioner without which we wouldn’t have world class offices & homes; Elevators without which we wouldn’t have high rise buildings. The book “Fifty inventions that shaped the modern economy” was an eye opener of sorts, for such inventions that we now take for granted, and without which, today’s economy would not have been possible. Tim Harford, the author of this amazing book (I suggest everyone to have a personal copy of this book at home), talks about 47 other inventions as well. To me, these 3 stories stayed, probably more as I “experience” them every day – Each time I take an elevator, each time I enter an Air-conditioned office or vehicle, and each time I see those huge trucks carrying the everyday essentials.

People (well, most people like me!) take the automobiles for granted, we just use it as a means of transport and don’t delve into the intricacies of this amazing invention. Crank up the key and off we go. What goes on within the engine is pure magic. The magicians behind this worked their socks off, in some cases taking extreme risks including possible explosions. Nicolaus Otto, the German engineer behind the Petrol engine, along with his brother, built a copy of the Lenoir engine, replacing gas with liquid fuel. Gottlieb Daimler, his manager used this concept to build commercial cars. Other German engineers Karl Benz and Wilhelm Maybach setup their own companies dedicated to the automobiles. It was a rough ride for all of them, having to go through financial struggles before eventually rolling out the cars on the road. But to Rudolf Diesel, the German inventor known to design the engine named after him, it cost him his life.

Rudolf Diesel, a student at Royal Bavarian Polytechnic of Munich was quite intrigued by the inefficiencies of the two engines available at the time: Steam engines and gasoline based Internal Combustion Engines. These variants only converted 10% of the heat into useful work. Diesel envisioned to convert all heat into work, and his first working engine was already more than 25% efficient, today the diesel engines top 50%. Diesel designed his engine to use a variety of fuels, from coal dust to vegetable oils. He was an evangelist for biodiesel. Diesel probably would have achieved much more, but he somehow mysteriously disappeared from his steamer SS Dresden enroute from Antwerp to London in 1913 (wow, more than 111 years back!). His biographers wrote it was a suicide; some believe he was murdered by the Nazis on the basis of his defection to the British; some suggest that this disappearance “drama” was staged by the British to move him safely to Canada; and then there is a conspiracy theory that he was murdered by the Oil companies who didn’t want him to make progress on the Biodiesel front. Well, we will never know the true story. But his legacy stays on, impacting all of us every day.

Author Tim Harford rightly refers the elevators as mass transportation systems. Elevators have existed for a long time, using the simple rope and pulley mechanism, powered by people and draft animals. But these mechanisms would not be useful for serious heights, and its safety was always an issue. Elisha Otis, an American inventor, devised the elevator break – safety device that prevents elevators from falling. The elevator-break truly “elevated” the humble transport into the omnipresent mass transport “lifts” that we now use all the time, day in, day out. Otis founded the company “Otis Elevator company” in 1853, which continues to be the largest elevator company in the world today. His invention changed the urban landscape for good. Now, we could build higher and higher. We are always in awe of those unbelievably engineered skyscrapers, while enjoying this “gravity-defying” feel when elevators challenge the pull of earth in these engineering marvels. What made these skyscrapers a reality was the Elevator. Honestly, I had never given much thought on this invention, but after reading the Harford book, I see it from a different lens. The moment I enter an elevator, more so if there is an “Otis” sign, a smile of gratitude comes to my face. It’s truly hard to imagine a world without elevators, and we owe it big time to Otis.

The concept of air conditioning primarily started to maintain the right humidity levels in industrial setup. Buffalo Forge, a heating company, was assigned to solve the air quality problem at the Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographing & Publishing Company of Brooklyn, New York. The company assigned this problem to a young engineer, Willis Carrier, who promptly devised a solution to maintain the humidity. Buffalo Forge soon started selling this invention to various companies. The company didn’t realize the unintended side effects of this invention – it could control weather for general public at consumer level. With the World War-I looming, the company decided to focus solely on the industrial installations. At this time, in 1915, Carrier and six others from the company, pooled in their life savings and formed the “Carrier engineering corporation” to cater to this new consumer market. The “Carrier Global corporation” today, continues to be the global leader in the HVAC industry. Carrier and his fellow inventors have made it possible to live in almost inhospitable conditions, in arid deserts, harsh winters, and maintain a “comfortable” thermal condition that we humans have been so accustomed to, now.

There are probably many more inventions that we today taken for granted, though they have become a necessary part of our daily lives. Thanks to the inventors who passionately dedicated their lives to make our lives much better. There have been plenty of inventions that happened in stages, one invention leading to another, one innovation improvised on another, eventually leading to this glorious technological advancement that we see today. Through this blog, I would request everyone to appreciate the various innovations, little or big, that we use it every day, and be grateful to the inventors, their dedication, persistence and their eventual success. Happy living!