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Sir Harry Ralph Ricardo (26 January 1885 – 18 May 1974) was an English engineer who was one of the foremost engine and researchers in the early years of the development of the internal combustion engine.
Among his many other works, he improved the engines that were used in the first , oversaw the research into the physics of internal combustion that led to the use of , was instrumental in development of the sleeve valve engine design, and invented the Diesel "Comet" Swirl chamber that made high-speed economically feasible.
Ricardo is said by Percy Kidner, then co-managing director of Vauxhall, to have had a hand in the design of the Vauxhall engine designed by Laurence Pomeroy for the RAC trial of 1908.T.R. Nicholson, Sprint – Speed Hillclimbs and Speed Trials in Britain: 1899–1925, David & Charles, 1969, Page 106.
Before graduation, Ricardo designed a two-stroke motorcycle engine to study the effect of mixture strength upon the combustion process. When he graduated, the small firm of Messrs Lloyd and Plaister expressed interest in making the engine. Ricardo produced designs for two sizes, and the smaller one sold about 50 engines until 1914, when the war halted production.
In 1909 Ricardo designed a novel two-stroke split cycle 3.3-litre engine for his cousin Ralph Ricardo, who had established a small car manufacturing company, "Two Stroke Engine Company", at Shoreham-by-Sea. The engine was to be used in the Dolphin car. Motor Sport, October 1968, Page 911. The cars were well made, but they cost more to make than the selling price. The company fared better making two-stroke engines for fishing boats. In 1911 the firm collapsed and Ralph departed for India. Ricardo continued to design engines for small electric lighting sets; these were produced by two companies until 1914.
Interest in the 1909 Ricardo designed split cycle Dolphin engine continues and in 2017 Ricardo PLC formed a new consortium called Dolphin-N2 to further develop the concept. In 2019 Dolphin N2 was purchased by FPT Industrial who claim The Recuperated Split Cycle engine has the potential to reduce fossil fuel use by up to 30% whilst simultaneously reducing air pollutants to well below any future planned legislation.
By April 1917 one hundred engines were being produced a week. A total of over 8,000 engines were put into military service, powering all of the British heavy tanks of the First World War since the Mark V. In addition, several hundred of the engines were also used in France for providing power and light to base workshops, hospitals, camps, etc.
One of Ricardo's first major research projects was on the problems of engine knocking, known as knocking or pinging. To study the problem he built a unique variable-compression test engine. This led to the development of an octane rating system for fuels, and considerable investment into octane improving additives and refining systems. The dramatic reduction in fuel use as a result of higher-octane fuel was directly responsible for allowing Alcock and Brown to fly the Atlantic in their Vickers Vimy bombers adapted with his modifications.
The compression swirl chamber design was called a "Comet" design (patented in 1931) and was subsequently licensed to a large number of companies for use in trucks, buses, tractors and cranes, as well as private cars and taxis. A Comet combustion chamber was used in the first Associated Equipment Company (AEC) diesel buses operated in 1931 by London General Omnibus Co, later part of the London Passenger Transport Board/London Transport. A later development of it featured in the world's first volume production diesel passenger car, the 1934 Citroën Rosalie. This meant that Britain led the world in the field of high-speed diesels for road transport at that time. This advantage was lost to the United Kingdom as a result of the heavy tax imposed on diesel fuel in the budget of 1938.
Ricardo designed the 1921 T.T. Vauxhall engine which was described by Cecil Clutton in Motor Sport as a tour de force Motor Sport, April 1942, Page 77. See also: Motor Sport, April 1969, Page 350; Motor Sport, July 1969, Page 747. in the 1922 RAC T. T. O Payne in the Ricardo Vauxhall came 3rd, Jean Chassagne on a 1921 Grand Prix Sunbeam winning outright.Kelly, Robert (1966). T. T. Pioneers. The Manx Experience. P.166 The engine was later developed by Raymond Mays and Amherst Villiers, who fitted a supercharger, and was still a winner fifteen years later.S.E. Cummings won the Brighton Speed Trials in the Vauxhall-Villiers in 1936.
In 1922 and 1923 Ricardo published a two-volume work "The Internal Combustion Engine". The internal-combustion engine by Harry Ralph Ricardo, Blackie and Son Limited.
Although Ricardo did not invent the sleeve valve, in 1927, he produced a seminal research paper that outlined the advantages of the sleeve valve, and suggested that poppet valve engines would not be able to offer power outputs much beyond 1500 hp (1,100 kW). A number of sleeve valve aircraft engines were developed following this paper, notably by Napier Lion, Bristol and Rolls-Royce. Bristol produced the Bristol Perseus, Bristol Hercules, Bristol Taurus and the Centaurus, Napier produced the Napier Sabre, and Rolls-Royce produced the Eagle and Crecy, all using sleeve valves.
In 1929 Ricardo was elected Fellow of the Royal Society.
Ricardo also assisted in the design of the combustion chambers and fuel control system of Sir Frank Whittle's jet engine.
On 16 June 2005 a blue plaque was placed outside the house where Ricardo was born in Bedford Square, London. On 1 July 2010, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers bestowed an Engineering Heritage Award on Sir Harry Ricardo in recognition of his life and work as one of the foremost engineers of the twentieth century. The first internal combustion engine which Harry Ricardo designed and built as a schoolboy currently displays this Engineering Heritage plaque in the Ricardo plc company exhibition area.
(2011). 9780904685152, The Newcomen Society. ISBN 9780904685152
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