Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper

by Robert Bryce

  While the three spokes of steel, coal, and cotton drove the early stages of the Industrial Revolution—and coal’s dominance lasted more than a century—that fuel’s dominance of the transportation sector would eventually yield to an even better energy source: oil.27

  Just as the early days of the coal industry were tied to the railroads, so too were the early days of the oil industry. With no interstate pipelines available to carry crude oil or refined products, John D. Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil, understood that Faster Cheaper rail service was essential if he was to make oil Cheaper for his customers. In the late 1860s, Rockefeller began investing in railroad tanker cars, a move that saved him the cost of building barrels to hold his products.28 The oil baron’s control over the Cleveland-area refining market allowed him to negotiate favorable shipping rates with the railroads. As Ron Chernow notes in his biography of Rockefeller, Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., the railroads were ready and willing to help Rockefeller because he was moving so much freight. By consolidating their operations around Rockefeller’s oil shipments in the late 1860s, the railroads could move freight Faster and “reduce the average round-trip time of their trains [from Cleveland] to New York from 30 days to 10 and operate a fleet of 600 cars instead of 1,800.” With that deal, writes Chernow, “the railroads acquired a vested interest in the creation of a gigantic oil monopoly that would lower their costs, boost their profits, and generally simplify their lives.”29 (Railroads continue to be a major transporter of oil. In 2012, about 4 percent of all North American crude oil production—about 400,000 barrels per day—was being moved by rail.30 Russian oil producers are also heavily dependent on railroads for transportation.31)

  Of course, the railroads have done far more than haul coal and petroleum. They also played a key role in the development of the American West. Throughout the 1800s and early 1900s, entrepreneurs and inventors built bigger and bigger steam engines. The adjacent picture shows a locomotive from 1865. It weighed about 30 tons (27,000 kilograms) and produced about 500 horsepower (373,000 watts), giving it a gravimetric power density of about 14.2 watts per kilogram.*

  The Age of Steam—in factories, on rails, and on boats—was one of continuing innovation. And while the Boulton & Watt engine was reliable and durable, it used a low-pressure boiler. That meant that it weighed more and produced less power than comparable engines that used high-pressure designs. Among the early adopters of the high-pressure steam engine were a pair of savvy engineers, Daniel French and Henry M. Shreve, who began operating riverboats on the Mississippi River in 1815. Although the high-pressure steam engines were more dangerous—their boilers had an unfortunate tendency of exploding—the high-pressure engines had higher gravimetric power density than the Boulton & Watt design.

  This locomotive, which was used to carry Abraham Lincoln’s body after his assassination in 1865, likely produced about 500 horsepower (373,000 watts). For comparison, the 2013 Ferrari F12 produces 730 horsepower (about 544,000 watts). Source: Library of Congress, LC-DIG-ppmsca-23855.

  In 1816, French and Shreve began operating a boat powered by a high-pressure steam engine of their own design. That engine produced 100 horsepower and weighed 5 tons (4,545 kg).32 Simple math shows that the French and Shreve engine had a gravimetric power density of 16.4 watts per kilogram. That was a significant increase over comparable Boulton & Watt engines of the time, which, as mentioned above, had power densities of about 9.8 watts per kilogram. That big boost in power-to-weight ratio was of critical importance to steamboat pilots, who often needed extra bursts of power when navigating treacherous waters.

  The Age of Steam likely reached its acme in Philadelphia in 1876, when an American, George Corliss, showcased one of the most famous steam engines of all time. Corliss (b. 1817, d. 1888) was a native of upstate New York, and like Watt, he had a genius for understanding and improving the mechanics of the steam engine.33 He designed valves and a valve-management system that improved the steam engine’s fuel efficiency by about 30 percent. After winning the gold medal at the Paris Exposition of 1867, Corliss became renowned as one of the world’s foremost builders of steam engines. Charles Morris explains that Corliss’s engines were so smooth and dependable that they became “almost a must-have” in the textile industry, which needed engines that could run their looms at constant speeds.34

  On May 10, 1876, 190,000 visitors flooded into the fairgrounds for the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, which celebrated the hundredth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.35 On that day, President U. S. Grant and Brazil’s Emperor Dom Pedro started the giant 1,400-horsepower (1 megawatt) Corliss steam engine that dominated the center of Machinery Hall. The massive machine stood 45 feet high and was the prime mover for some eight hundred machines arrayed inside the hall. The Corliss engine powered the machines through shafts that totaled more than a mile in length. The machine’s size and power left visitors slack-jawed. Journalist William Dean Howells, editor of the Atlantic Monthly, wrote that the machine was “an athlete of steel and iron with not a superfluous ounce of metal on it.” Howells continued, “the mighty walking beams plunge their pistons downward, the enormous flywheel revolves with a hoarded power that makes all tremble, the hundred life-like details do their office with unerring intelligence.”36

  Although the total weight of the Corliss engine is not available, we can approximate the machine’s power density by using the weight of its flywheel: 56 tons, or 50,800 kilograms.37 With an output of 1,400 horsepower or just over 1 million watts, the gravimetric power density of the Corliss engine was about 20 watts per kilogram, or about twice the density of the Boulton & Watt engines that had dominated the industrial sector seven decades earlier.

  While Corliss’s engine was a marvel of its day, the steam engine’s reign would not, could not, last. The push for Denser, more powerful engines led to the development of the internal combustion engine. In 1886, a German inventor, Karl Friedrich Benz, registered a patent on a three-wheeled automobile powered by a gasoline-fueled internal combustion engine.38 Benz’s vehicle used a 1-cylinder engine that weighed 211 pounds (96 kg) and produced 500 watts of power.39

  An illustration showing the giant Corliss steam engine at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The machine generated about 1,400 horsepower, or roughly 1 megawatt. Source: Library of Congress: LC-USZ62–96109.

  The Age of Steam was yielding to the Age of the Automobile. While Benz kick-started the era, an American, Henry Ford, brought motive power to the masses. In doing so, Ford offered consumers a durable internal-combustion engine that was Smaller Lighter Denser than the steam engines that birthed the Industrial Revolution.

  While both engines depend on the burning of hydrocarbons, the steam engine’s process is indirect: fuel is burned in a boiler, and the heat is used to create steam, which is then routed to a cylinder, where it drives a piston to create motion. By contrast, internal combustion engines take direct advantage of the explosive power of hydrocarbons inside the cylinder. By doing so, internal combustion engines are able to produce more power from a smaller package, as can be seen in the gravimetric power density that was available in Ford’s Model T, which debuted in 1908 at a cost of $850.

  The original Model T was equipped with a 2.9 liter engine that produced 22 horsepower (about 16,400 watts) and weighed about 300 pounds (136 kg). The result: gravimetric power density of nearly 121 watts per kilogram. That power density was 73 times that of a horse, 12 times that of the Boulton & Watt design and about six times that of the engine Corliss had introduced in Philadelphia three decades earlier.

  The engine in the Model T launched a mobility revolution. In 1908, Ford built fewer than 11,000 of the cars. By 1916, production was 600,000.40 By 1927, Ford was making a new Model T every 24 seconds. That same year, production of the Model T was finally halted. In all, some 15 million copies of that vehicle had been sold to the public.41

  While the Model T marks a pivotal moment in the history of the Age of t
he Automobile, the quest for higher power density in internal combustion engines was only beginning. Ford’s assembly line idea, combined with the advent of electricity, and more advanced manufacturing techniques, allowed engineers to design and build Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper engines that could be used in everything from automobiles and airplanes to lawn mowers and Weedwhackers.

  The development of the internal combustion engine launched a race for horsepower that’s ongoing to the present moment. Mobility was, and is, the name of the game. The quest for Faster has been propelled by engines fueled by the growing abundance of cheap refined oil products. (And as mentioned earlier, those Cheaper motor fuels were being made available thanks to Faster Cheaper drilling technologies like the roller-cone bit.) By 1917, with World War I raging, American aviators were flying the Curtiss JN-4, known as the Jenny, which was equipped with a 90-horsepower (about 67,000 watts) engine, while soldiers on the ground were riding in Mark VIII tanks powered by 300-horsepower (about 224,000 watts) engines. Less than three decades later, American flyers were dominating the World War II skies over Europe thanks to the P-51 Mustang, a high-performance fighter that was equipped with an engine that produced 1,695 horsepower (1.26 megawatts).

  Denser: Measuring Power Density from Horses to Jet Engines

  This graphic compares the gravimetric power density of an average horse, which is 1.7 watts per kilogram, with other power sources. Automobile shown is a Model T. For source data, please see Appendix C.

  In less than 70 years, American industry had gone from producing the Corliss engine, which weighed more than 50 tons and produced 1,400 horsepower, to producing an airplane that produced 21 percent more power and yet weighed just 6 tons. Furthermore, that aircraft could travel at speeds of more than 400 miles per hour.42 That was many times Faster than any of the steam-powered locomotives of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, which usually had top speeds of about 60 miles per hour.43

  The quest for Faster transportation meant designers had to create more powerful engines. Thanks to better alloys, more advanced machine tools, better lubricants, and closer tolerances, they have done exactly that. Modern engines use variable valve timing, fuel injection, and onboard computers to wring more power out of each joule of energy consumed.

  In the span of two centuries, modern society has gone from depending on Boulton & Watt steam engines capable of producing about 10 watts per kilogram to using jet turbines that are 1,500 times as powerful per unit of weight. A century ago, consumers were astounded that Ford could produce Model T engines that produced 22 horsepower. And at 121 watts per kilogram, those Model T engines sparked a world-changing advance in mobility. Today, consumers can easily purchase automobiles powered by engines that produce more than 900 watts per kilogram. If they want to see cars that can go really fast, they can watch Formula One cars powered by engines with power densities of about 5,900 watts per kilogram.44

  The push to wring more and more power out of Smaller Lighter engines has been ongoing since the days of Newcomen and Watt. And it will continue. In 2012, according to Dennis Huibregtse of Power Systems Research, some 222 million engines were manufactured.45 That works out to about one new engine per year for every thirty-one inhabitants on the planet. We rely on those devices to power everything from hedge trimmers to supertankers.

  The engines of the economy are engines, and every year those machines are getting Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper.

  SMALLER FASTER INC.

  FORD

  Official Name Ford Motor Company

  Web site http://www.ford.com

  Ownership Publicly traded, NYSE: F

  Headquarters Dearborn, Michigan

  Finances Market capitalization: $49.3 billion46

  2012 Revenue $136 billion47

  From his very first vehicles, Henry Ford was obsessed with Faster. In May 1902, Ford built the 999 Racer. It had a wooden chassis and massive engine that displaced 1,155 cubic inches (18.9 liters) and produced about 70 horsepower. In 1904, the car set a world speed record: 91.4 miles per hour.

  Few companies have lasted as long as Ford Motor Company has. Fewer still have been as successful. Ford’s enduring success can be attributed to its continued pursuit of Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper.

  Let’s consider Cheaper. In 1908, when Ford launched the Model T, consumers had only one color choice: black. And the price, while attainable for many people, was still fairly steep: $850. In current-day dollars, that vehicle would cost more than $20,000.48 By comparison, the lowest-priced Ford being sold in the United States is the Fiesta. A search done in mid-2013 on Cars.com found a brand-new, four-door, 2013 Ford Fiesta SE (in “violet gray”) with a five-speed manual transmission, cruise control, front disc brakes, power windows, a CD player, and a raft of airbags—first and second row curtain head, passenger-side, and driver-knee—could be purchased for a shade less than $12,000.50 Put another way, over the course of a century, the base-model Ford automobile has declined in price by about 40 percent compared to the first of the Model Ts. (Ford quickly maximized production, which allowed the company to cut prices. By 1915, a Tin Lizzy could be had for $440.)51

  1902: Henry Ford (right) stands next to the 999 Racer and driver Barney Oldfield. The engine on the vehicle produced about 70 horsepower (52,220 watts) from 18.9 liters. A modern Ford engine, the 1-liter Eco-Boost, has far greater power density. It produces about 75 percent more power from an engine that displaces about 5 percent of the volume required by the 999. Source: Wikimedia Commons.49

  The price decline from 1908 to today would be far greater if Ford Motor were still building a vehicle as simple as the Model T, which, by the way, had a top speed of about 45 miles per hour (72 km/h). The modern Fiesta costs less than the original Model T, and it provides safety, comfort, and speed advantages that would have left automobile buyers of a century ago agog. Compared to the Model T, the Fiesta can travel about twice as fast, with far greater reliability, and it even has a cup holder for your half-caf mocha latte while you cruise to the latest sounds from Tallest Man on Earth or maybe some vintage J. J. Cale.

  That Fiesta is Smaller than the Model T. Its engine is Smaller (1.6 liters versus 2.9).52 And the wheelbase is about two inches shorter (98 inches versus 100 inches).53

  Denser? You bet. Over the past century, Ford has dramatically increased the power density of its engines. In 2011, the company unveiled a 3-cylinder turbocharged 1-liter engine, the EcoBoost, which can produce 123 horsepower (91,758 watts).54 That’s about 16 times as much power per liter of displacement as the engine in the first Model T, and more than 30 times that of the 999 Racer. Even more remarkable is this: the 1-liter EcoBoost is more than two times as fuel-efficient as the engine used in the original Model T.55

  Lighter? Absolutely. The 1-liter EcoBoost engine is about 28 percent (39 kg) Lighter than the one that was used in the Model T. The result is a big boost in gravimetric power density: the Eco-Boost produces about 946 watts per kilogram, nearly eight times as much as what was produced by the Model T. The push for Lighter has extended into nearly every product that Ford makes. In 2011, a high-ranking manager from a rival carmaker told me that Ford was the “most innovative company in lightweight manufacturing.” In early 2014, Ford said it would begin making the body of its F-150 pickup from aluminum, a move that will make the vehicle about 700 pounds Lighter.

  Faster? Oh my, yes. In 2012, the EcoBoost engine was named the International Engine of the Year, a distinction that came, in part, because one of its key components rotates at astounding speed.56 Turbochargers have been used to boost power output in engines for decades. They do so by forcing more air into the cylinder prior to combustion. The impeller in a turbo commonly operates at speeds of 60,000 to 100,000 revolutions per minute.57 The impeller in the EcoBoost tops out at 248,000 rpm.

  Smaller Faster Denser: Volumetric Power Density in Ford Engines, 1902–2011

  Over the course of a century, the engineers at Ford Motor Company have dra
matically increased the volumetric power density of the company’s engines. In 1902, the 999 Racer was able to produce less than 3,000 watts per liter of engine displacement. By 2011, with the introduction of the EcoBoost, Ford’s engines were producing more than 90,000 watts per liter, a thirtyfold increase.

  Faster components allow more power to be produced from a Smaller space. A fundamental rule in physics is that power is equal to torque times speed. Torque is related to mass (weight), and given that Ford’s engineers wanted to reduce the engine’s weight, they couldn’t add heavy components. That left them with the challenge of engineering a turbocharger that could spin Faster than previous versions while keeping it light. The solution: Ford’s engineers crammed the turbo into a unit that’s about the size of an orange. In addition to the turbo, Ford’s designers added other go-fast technologies like direct injection and variable timing for the inlet and exhaust camshafts.58

  The turbo is Smaller. So is the engine itself. The outline of the 1-liter EcoBoost’s crankcase nearly fits on a sheet of office paper, allowing Ford to build cars that go Faster. In 2012, on a French track, the company set sixteen world speed records with a handful of Ford production cars equipped with the 1-liter EcoBoost. The records were set for vehicles in their engine class and included highest average speed over 10 kilometers and highest average speed over 24 hours: 106.2 mph (171 km/h).59

  The EcoBoost not only proves the durability of innovation and the push for density, it also shows that gasoline-fueled engines are going to be around for a while. And if Ford keeps innovating, the company might even be around for another century.

  * Energy, measured in joules, is the ability to do work. Power, measured in watts, is the rate at which work is done.