The boards of the Histechnica Association and of the KIVI Department of the History of Engineering are pleased - in this new year - to invite you to attend a lecture to be delivered by Mr Prof D. Stapersma entitled:

Opportunities and threats for the early maritime diesel engine

on Saturday 25 January 2025

Location: Construction Campus 26, entrance 'C', Van der Burghweg 1, 2628 CS Delft, entrance 'C' of the Science Centre

Programme

10.30 am:walk-in with coffee and tea

11:00 am:welcome and introduction

11.05:00: Lecture by Mr Douwe Stapersma

12:00 hrs: Break

12:15: Continuation of lecture and closing discussion

12:45: End of meeting

Summary of the lecture

Things almost went wrong during trials at MAN in Augsburg around 1896. Diesel's first engine had no cooling and was intended to burn pulverised coal. Both turned out to be a miscalculation; water cooling and a system to inject liquid fuel together with high-pressure air were the solution. He had also promised in his patent an engine that would work on the Carnot principle. He did not realise (or did not want to know) that such an engine could not even generate its own losses yet. But as an engineer, he did make the right decision to transform the cycle into what we now call the diesel process.

Together with fuel injection, these were the ingredients of his new engine. But his patent was fiercely attacked. Many licensees, including MAN Augsburg itself, failed to produce a reliable engine with which people dared to go to sea. For the maritime diesel engine, the forerunner was the Marines of this world with a new weapon: the submarine. They led the way in making maritime diesel engines reliable until 1920. Meanwhile, new technologies that are essential today had already been invented, but were not always immediately successful.

Information about the speaker

After studying mechanical engineering at TUDelft, majoring in gas turbines and minoring in Measurement and Control Engineering, Douwe Stapersma worked at Nevesbu from 1973 on various naval projects, including submarines. In 1993, he became professor of platform systems at the Royal Naval Institute (KIM) and part-time associate professor at TUDelft. In 2000, he was appointed part-time professor at TUDelft for Maritime Mechanics & Diesel Engines, where, until his retirement in 2013, he taught the lecture on diesel engines and supervised 10 PhD students, among others.

To attend this lecture, please register:

- KIVI members can register via the KIVI website

- Members of Histechnica can register through the secretary hotzeboonstra@gmail.com.

- Interested parties who are not members can also register through the above channels. There will then be a charge of €5.00.

The lecture will be broadcast live, for participation click on the link below:

https:// youtube.com/live/SeS13gs-rZw

Upcoming activities in Science Center Delft

- Saturday 22 February 2025 at 11:00 lecture by Prof J.F. Abbink: "Towards a 1-man cockpit?"

- Saturday 15 March 2025 at 11:00 a.m. lecture by Dr N. de Hilster: "A quadrant like Blaeu's: Construction, use and accuracy".

- Saturday 12 April 2025 at 11:00 a.m. Detail follows

- Saturday 17 May 2025 at 11:00 am Lecture by ir A. Burgers: "From the Scheldt to the Rhine: The waterway quarrels between the Netherlands and Belgium".

- Saturday 28 June 2025 at 11:00 a.m. Detail follows

A 2-day study tour to Liege and its surroundings will take place on Thursday 22 May and Friday 23 May 2025.

On the occasion of Histechnica's 50th anniversary, a book "From Failure to Progress" was published on Saturday 20 April 2024. The book will be available free of charge during the lecture.