Twilight of the Age of Steam, Part 2: Petroleum and After

🌈 Abstract

The article discusses the history and development of the petroleum industry, from its early use as a lighting fuel to its role in powering the internal combustion engine and the rise of the diesel engine. It also covers the transition from steam power to gas turbines and the eventual decline of the "age of steam".

🙋 Q&A

[01] Petroleum: A Product in Search of Solutions

1. What were the main obstacles that prevented the extensive use of petroleum as a fuel source before the mid-19th century? The main obstacles were:

• Chemical: It was not obvious how to extract a useful fuel from raw petroleum, and the necessary chemical knowledge and techniques did not emerge until the 19th century.
• Industrial: Refining petroleum in a laboratory was one thing, but doing it at the scale needed to create a national or global market was another challenge.
• Logistical: Petroleum was heavy and difficult to process, and there was no obvious reason to believe it represented a large, liquid reservoir underground that could be accessed.

2. How did developments in the 19th century help overcome these obstacles?

• Europeans had begun constructing large-scale chemical manufacturing plants, primarily for making soda, earlier in the century.
• Around 1860, the chemical industry expanded into synthetic organic compounds, including dyes extracted from the tarry residue left over after making illuminating gas from coal.
• Salt miners had created the boring machinery needed for drilling deep into the earth to extract subsurface brine.

3. What was the key reason that drove the effort to apply these tools to the petroleum industry? The growing demand for illumination, as "modernity, with its contempt for the rhythms of nature, had taken a firm hold in the culture of Europe and North America." Whale oil, the premium-grade illuminating fluid, was becoming scarce and expensive, leading to the need for a cheaper alternative.

[02] Petroleum and Internal Combustion: Symbiosis

1. How did the needs of combustion engine makers and petroleum refiners become aligned?

• Combustion engine makers were looking for a new source of portable liquid fuel, as illuminating gas was only convenient in towns with the infrastructure for piping it.
• Petroleum refiners were looking for new buyers for their product, as electric light threatened to relegate kerosene to a niche fuel.

2. What key innovations allowed combustion engines to use petroleum-based fuels effectively?

• The development of reliable gasoline carburetors in the mid-1880s, which could vaporize and mix the lighter gasoline fuel with air more readily than heavier fuels.
• The use of hot tube ignition and water cooling to allow Daimler and Maybach's engines to reach much higher RPMs than typical Otto engines of the time.

3. How did the diesel engine differ from the gasoline engine in its use of petroleum-based fuels?

• Diesel engines used the principle of extreme air compression to ignite the fuel, rather than a premixed fuel-air mixture.
• This allowed them to use heavier, less volatile fuels like kerosene and vegetable oils, rather than the more volatile gasoline.

[03] Diesel

1. What key insight from the fire piston device is thought to have influenced Diesel's development of his engine? The rapid compression of air in a fire piston to the point of igniting tinder is believed to have provided the inspiration for Diesel's concept of achieving high efficiency through the extreme compression of air.

2. What were the major engineering challenges Diesel and his team faced in developing a working diesel engine? The key challenges were:

• Achieving the extremely high compression ratios (up to 250 atmospheres) that Diesel initially envisioned, which were considered absurd at the time.
• Developing a fuel injector that could precisely time the injection of fuel into the highly compressed air in the cylinder.

3. How did the diesel engine's characteristics make it well-suited for certain applications compared to gasoline engines? The diesel engine's high compression ratios allowed it to produce high torque at low RPMs, making it well-suited for heavy-duty applications like ships, tractors, and locomotives, where the ability to overcome momentum from a standstill was important.

[04] Gas Turbines

1. How did the availability of abundant natural gas in the early 20th century Southwest US impact the use of steam power for electricity generation? The abundant natural gas supply led to its use in place of coal or oil to fuel steam power plants in some areas, providing a cleaner and more energy-dense fuel source.

2. What key developments enabled the rise of gas turbine technology as an alternative to steam power?

• The development of high-temperature alloys that could withstand the continuous high temperatures in gas turbines.
• Advances in gas compressor technology for aircraft superchargers during WWII, which provided important experience for stationary gas turbine design.

3. What advantages did gas turbines offer over steam power for electricity generation? Gas turbines could be turned on and off quickly to respond to demand spikes, and they burned cleaner and produced less carbon dioxide compared to coal-fired steam plants.

[05] The Twilight of Steam

1. How did the gradual decline of steam power play out in the early-to-mid 20th century?

• Steam power coexisted with newer technologies like internal combustion engines and diesel power, with a hybrid mix of steam and newer technologies being used.
• By the 1960s, steam power was firmly in the past, viewed more as a historical era than a present reality.

2. What broader themes or implications does the rise and fall of steam power represent?

• Steam power represented humanity's ability to harness stored energy from the past (coal) to power the present, rather than relying on natural, cyclical energy flows.
• This impatient, spendthrift spirit of the "age of fossil fuels" led to concerns about resource depletion and environmental impacts that are now driving a shift towards renewable energy sources.

3. How does Jevons' paradox capture the spirit of the steam age? Jevons' paradox observed that making steam engines more efficient would actually increase coal consumption, as the lower cost of steam power would drive greater utilization. This exemplifies the age's focus on maximizing the use of stored energy resources without regard for long-term sustainability.