Isaacson Engine Company of Leeds aka Isaacson Radial Engine Co
Aero-engine.
1910 Rupert John Isaacson employed Albert Edward Charlton, 22, who had been with Isaacson's previous firm, and together they produced their first radial (as opposed to rotary) engine, which was ordered by Claude Grahame-White. It quickly became apparent that it would be too heavy, so Isaacson designed a Mk 2 version of 40 HP, with 7 cylinders. A novel feature was the use of gearing to give a propellor speed of half the crankshaft speed. After testing and modification, including a change from cast iron to steel cylinders, the engine was fitted to the Blackburn No. 2 monoplane.
1910 May. Detailed letter from R. J. Isaacson regarding the engine.[1]
1910 'THE ENGINES OF THE AIR
LEEDS UNIVERSITY STUDENTS DISCUSS THE PROBLEM.
The Leeds University Engineering Society opened their winter session last evening with an address by Mr. R. J. Isaacson on “The Design of Aeroplanes.” There was a crowded attendance, Mr. J. Gilchrist, A.M.I.C.E., presiding.
Mr. Isaacson had on view his Leeds-made aerial engine, which is to be fitted to a Blackburn monoplane and tested at Filey in the course of a few days. By this practical model, and also by number of lime-light illustrations and drawings, he was able to keep up interest in the subject for over an hour and a half. He dealt at the outset with the absolute essentials of success in an engine for flying purposes. The motor must be absolutely reliable and capable of running for several hours consecutively without heating. It must be light in weight. This, however, must not obtained- the expense of strength. There must perfect balance, all aero engines can only be fixed on the light framework a plane, and any appreciable vibration tended to loosen the joints and broke the wires. High efficiency both engine and propeller must be attained. In other words, the greatest possible thrust must be got from the propeller for the least possible amount of horse-power expended. The ordinary water-cooled type engine used on motor car had so many disadvantages when applied to an aeroplane that the most successful designers of aero-engines had adopted means for keeping the cylinders air-cooled. There were two ways in which this had been found to work satisfactorily. Either the cylinders could be placed radially round a crank case, or the whole of the engine could be made to revolve. The first principle, it was explained, had been adopted in the Isaacson engine, the contention being that engine which only revolved its crankshaft could be made to run at a very much higher speed than one in which the whole engine rotated, and thereby more power could be got from engine of a given weight. The cylinders could be air-cooled in the draught of the propeller quite well in the rotary engine, without absorbing any of the power of the engine. Moreover with stationary cylinders a reducing gear could be placed between the engine and propeller so that both could be run their most efficient speed, which would not be possible if tho whole engine revolved. In the Isaacson seven-cylinder engine, which ran from 1,600 to 1,800 revolutions, it had been able, by the reducing gear, to cut down the speed of the propeller to 750 or 800 revolutions, which was found to be the most efficient speed of a propeller. In moving a vote of thanks to the lecturer, Mr. Robert Blackburn, of Leeds, emphasised that the proportion of slip in a propeller running at a thousand revolutions per minute and over was far greater than in one revolving at a less speed. The resolution was adopted with acclamation.' [2]
1913 'Big Engineering Firms at Work. .... I now learn that another Newcastle firm are making the Anzani engine, which has recently come to the front as one of the best engines in France, and that the Dudbridge Iron Works at Stroud, in Gloucestershire, are making the Canton-Unne, which has done some remarkably good work lately. Manning, Wardle & Co., of Leeds, who made the first Isaacson engine, are now preparing to turn them out in quantities, so that before long there ought to be no trouble about aero-engines. ....'[3]
1938 Letter: 'AVIATION. Yorkshire's Part Its Development. Had I my records by me when writing you first, I might have extended the list of Yorkshire pioneers Including Brereton, Sydney Pickles, of Bradford and Sydney, and William[?] Isaacson. Isaacson was a Hunslet engineer, who designed and built one our first radial engines. It was with an Isaacson engine on a Blackburn monoplane that Hucks took his pilot's ticket at Filey on May 18, 1911. Considering that rotary engines, with their multiplicity of moving parts, have given us our outstanding power of achievement hitherto, the genius of Isaacson in pioneering with a stationary engine calls for recognition, and tribute should paid the Charlesworth colliery family for their unselfish financial support to Isaacson at this time; .... — Yours, etc., STUART A. HIRST. Oak Lea, Adel, Leeds.[4]
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ The Autocar 1910/05/28
- ↑ Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer - Tuesday 11 October 1910
- ↑ Edinburgh Evening News - Thursday 28 August 1913
- ↑ Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer - Thursday 4 August 1938