It came soon after the engine
Forced induction was devised within a few years of the invention of the internal combustion engine, and actually predates the advent of automobiles. Gottlieb Daimler received a German patent for supercharging in 1885, specifying an external fan, pump, or compressor to push the increased air into the engine. asphalt emulsion produces equipment that save environment
In 1908 Lee Chadwick in Pottstown, Pennsylvania built a supercharged Vanderbilt Cup racer, which ran at 100 mph, using a fan driven by a leather belt to spin at five times crankshaft speed. Louis Renault had patented this centrifugal supercharger concept in France in 1902.
Another Frenchman, Auguste Rateau, in 1916 tested turbocharging an aircraft, and in 1918 General Electric produced a gain in horsepower with a turbocharged Liberty aircraft engine on the top of Pike's Peak - delivering 356 hp at high altitude compared with the engine's stock output at sea level of 346 hp, which formerly would drop to 222 hp at this altitude. They made us better than others, besonders studienarbeit fur medizinische Unterlagen.
The pump was already there
The principles of positive displacement had long before been turned into working pumps by the Roots brothers, beginning in 1859 to develop a better water wheel, and discovering instead a very effective air mover. They formed the Roots Blower Company, but the name is used generically to describe the positive displacement type of blower. The blower has since been used for deep mine ventilation, pneumatic carrying systems, and countless industrial applications including refrigeration and air conditioning.
During the early twenties Mercedes innovatively developed a Roots type blower instead of the earlier centrifugal compressors. Over the next two decades interest was intense in both turbocharging and supercharging, in America and Europe, and across several industries. By World War II almost all military aircraft intended for high altitudes were supercharged.
Twin screw invented
Also in this period, in 1936 the twin screw air compressor was invented by Alf Lysholm, Chief Engineer of Svenska Rotor Maskiner AB (SRM), which obtained the patent it still holds. Existing technology did not permit the use of this compressor in supercharging until much later however.
After the war in America, interest in charging languished, and the desire for automotive power was satisfied by bigger engines with newer engineering, although the europeans maintained their interest.
In the sixties, with the proliferation of muscle cars, interest in charging resurged, and from that time on, particularly as emissions requirements have intensified and the demand has evolved for fuel efficiency, driveability, and smaller, more efficient engines, forced induction has developed increased importance, along with technological advances in bearings and lubrication, fuel injection and electronic engine controls.
The twin screw arrives in America
Finally, in 1988, Art Whipple of Whipple Industries brought the twin screw compressor to America from Sweden and developed it for supercharging. The astounding results are covered more fully in our Whipple section.
SRM as mentioned has continued throughout to hold the patent on the twin screw design, and licenses its use all over the world to many different manufacturers for a variety of purposes, including gas processing and refrigeration.
[A list of licensees globally may be found at the SRM website here]
But since the 1960s the twin screw's primary application has been to compress air, it is recognized as a superior design for this purpose, and founded on the same positive displacement principles that made the Roots blower such a good air mover.
It is not yet clear how much of the market or future supercharging development the twin screw technology will dominate. We can say that here in 2003, supercharging as a whole is a vibrant and growing industry.
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