Johnlamb

H E RO: J OH N LAMB MARINE E NGINE E R RJF HUDSON CEng., PhD., BAppSc., Extra First Class M.O.T DMS., FIMarEST., FIMechE., MCMI. Dr Hudson was formerly Chief Engineer and Technical Superintendent of The Indo-China Steam Navigation Co (HK) (Jardine Matheson & Co) August 2005 This paper sets out to eulogize one of the world’s foremost marine engineers. Little, if anything has been written about John Lamb yet this memorably ingenious man was the originator of the successful use of furnace oil as fuel in compression ignition marine oil engines. For this work he received the Denny Gold Medal from The Institute of Marine Engineers. The first trans-Atlantic voyage successfully completed under gas turbineelectric power by a commercial vessel was pioneered by John Lamb. For his paper reporting upon this work he received a second Denny Gold Medal. His paper reporting to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers upon the dangers surrounding diesel engine crank case explosions earned him the coveted Herbert Ackroyd Stuart triennial prize. His WW2 work making wooden lifeboats fireproof was recognised by his OBE. His meticulously crafted technical books remain testimony to the life of this remarkable marine engineer. PREAMBLE Steam engines had been propelling ships across oceans for 90 years by the time John Lamb went to sea in 1911. Almost 75 years had passed since Brunel’s paddle steamer Great Western began to operate. Hans Reynold’s ingenious roller chain debuted in 1880. Ackroyd Stuart had an airless fuel injection pre-combustion chamber engine working in 1890, the year John Lamb was born. Rudolph Diesel and MAN had a cold starting air-blast compression ignition engine working in 1892. Anthony Michell’s all-conquering thrust pad was in production in 1905, going to sea first in a Denny-built ship in 1913. Despite their enormous size, the reciprocating steam engines used could not satisfactorily handle the pressures and very large volumes of steam that were required to provide the power necessary to propel new ships such as the Carmania, Mauretania and Lusitania on the Atlantic run, so the engines chosen for these majestic passenger liners were turbines, newly designed by Charles Parsons. The added benefit of this decision was the fact that these turbines required a boiler coal fuel consumption roughly 20% less that did reciprocating steam engine propulsion of equivalent power. While they were commercially successful in their era, turbine efficiencies remained worryingly low. For example the Mauretania consumed 1½ lbs of coal per horsepower-hour which equates to a general efficiency of 11.5%. More than 1000 tons of coal per day were shovelled by the boiler room stokers. The obvious demand for improvement in propulsive efficiencies chiefly depended on using steam pressures and temperatures greater than the 200-250 psi with no superheat, that were currently in vogue. Improved turbine designs suitable for higher pressures and temperatures were readily available. But advances in steam boiler designs were not. The praiseworthy metallurgists had further work to do. As a separate matter the bulk of world shipping handled seven-seas cargoes. They required powers only of the order of 1500 IHP. Owners were therefore making do with reciprocating steam engines. Coal was also readily available for their Scotch-type boilers at their ship’s ports of call. But as a result of their higher efficiency, compression ignition engines of this power were gaining popularity for marine propulsion. This was in direct ratio both to their reliability, and to the port-availability of fuel that they used. The age of diesel engine ship-propulsion was gaining great momentum. Author’s Biography Richard Hudson joined The Indo-China Steam Navigation Company (Jardine Matheson & Co) of Hong Kong from Australia, as a junior marine engineer in 1951. He obtained his First Class Steam Certificate in London in 1955 and his First Class Motor Endorsement at Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in 1960. He obtained his Extra First Class Certificate by examination held in Hong Kong and is the only marine engineer to do this. He was appointed a seagoing Chief Engineer at 26 years of age in 1956, Assistant Superintendent Engineer in 1962 and Chief Superintendent Engineer in 1968. He was awarded a post graduate Diploma in Management Studies (HKU) in 1972. He retired in 1974 but was retained by his employers for many years as a consultant. He received his BAppSc (1987) and PhD (2002) from Queensland University of Technology. He was a founding committee member (secretary) of the Hong Kong Branch in 1965 and is a past branch chairman. He is presently a member of the Queensland Panel IMechE. 2 The part that John Lamb played in the technical strides that kept Britain at the forefront of world trade with all the economic benefits that this bestowed, was to successfully get diesel ships to reliably and economically use cheap thick furnace oil as fuel in place of their normal refined thin diesel oil and as a corollary, point out to others in the field the way to obtain successful and reliable diesel engine use. Then he went further. He successfully introduced gas turbines for ship propulsion using furnace oil. INTRODUCTION In the time spent trying to piece together some of the components that comprised John Lamb’s character and seeking clues to thereby build up a picture of him, principal attributes emerge. One of his first attributes is that he appears to be an immensely private man. In his autobiography, “Backward Thinking”, where he has the forum to discuss his wartime seafaring experiences including the seven times that ships upon which he was serving were sunk in World War 1, he offers no discussion. Nor does he comment upon the permanent injuries he suffered as a result. He lost his left eye in 1915 when he was 24 years of age and serving at sea. His only reference to this incident is in humorous context, and only then as an aside to his recounting the torpedoing of a later ship he was serving on, in 1917. On this occasion the perilously damaged vessel was eventually brought to safety by the ship’s engineers after they had managed to re-start one of the two main diesel engines. This followed their prevention of the vessel sinking because of a dangerously flooding engine room. As further evidence of his reticence, Mr Lamb was married yet nowhere in his writings does he mention this. Nor does he offer any complaints about the inordinate time away from home that he was compelled to endure at sea and elsewhere, in service to his shipping employers. As his own career advanced, his belief in the value of technical education for younger marine engineers and for those less able than himself was translated into a notable willingness to disseminate to others as much of his technical knowledge as he was able. Later on in life, when others of his advancing age were probably doing something thought by custom to be far more relaxing, for more than three years he devoted three hours every day seven days a week, to write a new edition of one of his books in which there were one thousand pages and three hundred drawings. He did this on top of all the responsibility that occupied his normal day’s work. He knew from his own life-long experience and the difficulties that he had to overcome himself, how hard is the path of the ambitious man who has had no introduction to the stores of accumulated knowledge in his youth. Beginning at an early age, Mr Lamb became a prolific technical author. In his many books, papers and contributed technical and other articles, it is clear that erudition rested comfortably upon him. His extensive knowledge could only have been acquired from his own experiences and the motive for its translation could only have been acquired from his childhood home life and teaching. His meticulously detailed books described the theory, designs, maintenance and operation of marine propulsion systems. His books also covered most of the auxiliaries and other machinery items that are associated with marine engineering plant. Even today Lamb’s books are considered by many marine engineers to be among the most respected classics in the field. His written clarity is exemplified by the fact that he required no sketches, drawings or photos to construct his book, “Questions and Answers on the Marine Diesel Engine”. His ability to appreciate the special educational needs of young marine engineers ensured that his books found a permanent place in their luggage. Perhaps he was shaped by his own correspondence school experience as a youth at Gateshead. The practical directions of his books was not a case of Lamb eschewing the theoretical concepts of his technical work, more to the point it was a case of Lamb the practical man, the empiricist. This course must have been chosen by him because despite the wealth of theory in the field, Lamb did things that nobody did before. He achieved technical results that nobody else had achieved. His pioneering wartime work of converting oil tankers to merchant aircraft carriers is just one of an abundance of other innovative things that he did in his life that confirms in many minds Lamb’s tenacity of purpose. The work he did to demonstrate the effectiveness of low grade boiler fuel oil as a reliable substitute for better quality refined diesel oil, was the result of his unshakeable belief 3 in the superiority of diesel engines and their ability to use cheaper fuels for marine propulsion. He demonstrated both technical and economical results. His results were unchallenged. His courage did not exaggerate itself into foolhardiness nor did caution act as any damper upon the technical advances he undertook. There was blended into Lamb’s character a large measure of both humility and empathy. For example he was deeply affected by the terrible ordeals that tanker men suffered when their ships were attacked in World War 2. He dreaded the news because he, himself, had suffered similar horrifying experiences at sea in tankers in World War 1, during 1914 –1917. From 1940 onwards, Lamb held the position of Chief Marine Superintendent with the Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Company. Of the 208 ships owned by the company and its subsidiaries at the beginning of the war, eighty-seven were sunk and fifty seriously damaged. Some 1750 officers, seamen and naval gunners lost their lives in these ships and many more were permanently and in some cases horribly maimed. Many of these men were personally known to Mr Lamb. It is therefore not surprising that at a time when British ships were being sunk at an appalling rate and despite the many other vital wartime responsibilities Lamb carried in his wartime job, he accepted an invitation from the UK Wartime Tanker Tonnage Committee of the Petroleum Board to chair a specially convened committee to quickly develop unsinkable fireproof lifeboats. The UK ocean-going ships of whatever purpose offered little protection for men who, having survived bomb and torpedo attacks, faced the horrible ordeal of seeking salvation from their sinking vessels through dangerous seas of blazing oil in wooden lifeboats. It was obvious to all that replacing the existing wooden lifeboats, particularly those on serving tankers, was not feasible in the short term. Mr Lamb therefore set about their conversion into fire-resisting craft. Such was his faith in what he had accomplished at the end of his work, with two of his assistants seated inside his converted lifeboat with him, Mr Lamb exhaustively tested his converted lifeboat afloat in the midst of blazing fuel oil. It passed all tests. With the advent of these newly improved, fitted and fireproofed lifeboats, coupled with redesigned boat-launching devices, the chances of safety and rescue of seamen set down in lifeboats in the midst of seas blazing with oil had improved enormously. Lamb had led his team to a major achievement. A further example of Lamb’s life long concern for the betterment and welfare of his fellow man was further utilised by his service upon the committee that enquired into the accident in the engine room of the MV Reina del Pacifico on September 11, 1947. This was the official Ministry of Transport committee chaired by Lamb. It convened in the County Courthouse in Belfast and sat over eighteen days in April/May 1948 to enquire into the awful deaths of twenty eight men operating the ship’s engines during repair sea trials. Built by the famous Harland and Wolff shipyard at Belfast, the 17 708 dwt passenger liner was powered by four Burmeister and Wain blast injection diesel engines. Following refit by her builders, the ship experienced serious overheating of various pistons and cylinders upon sea trials. Upon returning from further sea trials eight days later, overheating was again observed and the engines stopped. Five minutes after re-starting the engines an explosion happened in No 2 crank chamber of the port outer engine. Three further explosions occurred in the crankcases of the port inner, starboard inner, and starboard outer engines. In the instant that followed the sheets of flame, the engine room was a shambles, parts blown apart, blackened, without lighting and full of thick smoke. The appalling result was the horrible deaths of twenty eight men with many more extensively burned or otherwise injured. The Lamb committee identified the causes of the tragedy; their 1948 report could not establish responsibility. Harland and Wolff and the owners, Pacific Steam Navigation Company shared the compensation costs. 4 BACKGROUND John Lamb was born on the 24th of August 1890, in the village of Forrest Hall, just outside the city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in Britain. He was born in the period when Britain’s entire technical prowess that emanated from the Industrial Revolution continued to bear fruit. The nation’s increasing prosperity was coming at great social and environmental cost, a cost slowly being seen as unacceptable and in need of correction. At the year beginning the century, 11 million tons of coal were mined in his district to produce among other things, 273 000 tons of iron. Trevithick’s steam locomotive had successfully pulled a load of ten tons of iron, seventy passengers and five wagons the distance of nine miles between Pennydarren and the Mertyr-Cardiff canal. Stephenson’s Stockton and Darlington railway had opened in 1825 and five years later the Liverpool and Manchester railway transported 445 047 passengers through the year. Cotton shipping imports through Liverpool increased from 450 000 tons in 1800 to 1 224 000 tons in 1834. Whereas in 1850 two thirds of industry’s power to produce goods was supplied by man or his horses, by 1873 the Industrial Revolution became powered by mechanical engines, all invented and built by local British engineers. This was the year that an electric dynamo capable of long life was built using principles developed by British physicists, only to be overtaken by alternating current generators driven by steam turbines invented by Charles Parsons. It was at Newcastle-Upon-Tyne’s Forth Banks power station that Parson’s turbines were first used for electricity generation in 1888. In 1880, only ten years before Lamb’s birth, the smoke from burning sulphurous coal killed 2 000 British people in one week. Coal slag heaps, mud, ashes, and steel cables were commonplace, as were the coalmines in the area where Lamb was born. Yet it was the coal that beneficially produced the steam for Charles Parson’s turbines. Until this time, the only cheap electricity came from generators allied to falling water. Coal had certainly brought great benefit but its use had come at great environmental cost. This was the era when Master Lamb, at barely fifteen years of age, began his fitter’s apprenticeship at the Gateshead engineering works of Clarke Chapman & Co Ltd, the same company to which Charles Parsons had been formerly connected. Clark Chapman were renowned for their manufacture of many types of steam driven machinery. Master Lamb’s working days began at 6am and concluded at 5pm with the break at noon on Saturdays. His pay was 5/- per week. Living at home with his mother, and to help her pay for his schooling, John took an extra job. Rising at 4.30am three mornings every week, he would cart bundles of magazines and journals from their distribution suppliers in Newcastle to his local newsagent’s shop. The money he earned enabled him to enrol as a mechanical engineering student with the International Correspondence School. Their fee of £10 was very large in those days and so he arranged to pay it by means of 10/- per month instalments. At risk of not being able to make these regularly required payments, John hit upon the idea of joining with twenty or thirty other ragged boys buying and selling newspapers. He did this in his bare feet, so that he could run faster than the others. With these few extra shillings he paid his school fees and with the little money that was left over, he acquired a few second hand textbooks. The next year he enrolled at his local school to do four nights of tuition per week. He was enrolled at the Shipcoat Council School, Gateshead-on-Tyne from 1898 to 1905. He attended evening classed from 1905 to 1910. He took the mechanical engineering courses with the International Correspondence Schools from 1907 to 1910. Later, when serving at sea, on having exceeded the required one year sea service by 24 days, and after a two day’s attendance at South Shields Marine School and upon successfully completing the Board of Trade examination he was awarded his Second Class Steam Certificate. He was 21 years of age. His sea service had been obtained as fourth engineer aboard SS Duffield. This was a ship of 6 000 dwt, with two coal fired 100 psi Scotch-type boilers. The main engine was of 1 200 IHP and triple expansion. The steering gear was steam driven. There was no shipboard electricity and therefore no refrigeration; lighting throughout was by kerosene wicklamp. The Duffield sailed with a cargo of steel rails from Middlesbrough to Port Sudan. Before returning to the UK, the Duffield traded for 12 months carrying coal, trading between Calcutta, Colombo and the Red Sea port of Djibouti. 5 Now in possession of his Second Class Certificate, Mr Lamb sought further employment back at sea. Applying to his old company for another position, he was told that providing he paid his own fare to join the Duffield at Cardiff, they would offer him a job as third engineer. Since he couldn’t afford to be without work, while not to his liking, the young John Lamb rejoined the Duffield. Upon returning to Newcastle after 13 months further sea service while in possession of his Second Class Certificate, and one month more than the examiners required, the young John Lamb successfully completed the four-day examination for his First Class Steam Certificate. He was 22 years of age. EARLY CAREER In 1914 John Lamb was 23 years of age. With his Chief’s ticket he had just been appointed as Second Engineer of his first motor ship. It was a new ship. Builders of diesel engines at that time must have had supreme confidence in their capabilities as diesel engine designers or else, as the author suspects, they had little or no understanding of the enormous power of rough seas upon small ships, particularly tankers in ballast. Engineers who have kept watches in the engine rooms of early triple expansion engine steamships will readily recall the dangerous action of flailing crossheads and valve links as the engine raced in heavy seas. Watchkeepers were required to monitor bearing temperatures by “feeling” them by hand, as the engine operated. Top-end bearings were felt as they ran up and down in their guides. To monitor bottom-end temperatures watchkeepers extended their outstretched hands into the crankpit above the rotating crankshaft and hand-felt the bearing by touching it in the space between the rod and the crankweb as the crankshaft revolved and the bottom-end crankpin swept past before their face. Aspinall inertia governors tried hard, but never properly did the job of slowing the engine speed when the propeller was flung clear of the water. Then, when the propeller was sent deep, the governor was always late in supplying the engine with the steam it required to keep the revolutions meaningful. It was the nature of those steam engines to require that all the moving parts be lubricated by hand. This included the crosshead bearings and guides, the bottom-end bearings and the crankshaft main bearings. It will be readily understood that hand lubrication of bearings was a hit or miss affair in normal circumstances. In heavy seas it was doubly worse. The job itself was always hazardous and in rough seas it was also very messy. Oil was continually thrown everywhere by the rotating and reciprocating parts. Mr Lamb’s new ship had two main propulsion diesel engines. In accordance with triple expansion steam engine design, both diesel engines on Lamb’s ship had likewise open front crankcases. The diesel engine bearings were similarly hand lubricated but being two-strokes, the bearing pressures were never relieved in the same way that steam forces relieved bearing pressures in steam engines. Aspinall inertia speed governing mechanism that was initially designed for steam engines was also utilised on early diesel engines but in heavy seas this mechanism continued to offer a similar primitive performance. Combustion blow-past, smoke, fuel-oil fumes and lubricating oil was everywhere. Bearing temperatures were likewise monitored by watchkeepers “feeling around” by hand, again a procedure carried over from steam engine practice. But the method was much more dangerous with Lamb’s diesels because steam engines normally ran at speeds about 80 rpm, whereas the diesels on his ship were designed to run at 160 rpm. Attempting to “feel” by hand the temperatures of rotating bottom end bearings on revolving crankshafts that were continually racing in rough seas, even at reduced engine revs, was fraught with danger. In heavy seas hot bearings were commonplace. They invariably suffered damage as a result. On Lamb’s first motor ship the engineers struggled unsuccessfully for three months to keep the engines operating. After a final breakdown, the vessel was finally towed back to Britain from the Bay of Biscay. Recognising that their ship’s engines were a technical disaster, the owners replaced them with new engines of a different design. This was a time when the designs for fuel-injection, reversing, entablature construction and combustion pressures, i.e., all the relative issues of diesel engine design, were in their infancy. But more and more diesel machinery was being ordered. There could not have 6 been much consideration given by owners in those days to the welfare and the onerous workload placed upon the marine engineers who were called upon to keep these engines operating. What other explanation can be given in the light of Anglo-Saxon Petroleum, Lamb’s employer, placing an order in 1923 for the construction of twelve 10 000 dwt tankers to be powered by double-acting oil engines, never before built or tried. The MV Britannic (3) for example, a passenger ship of 26 943 gt, commissioned from the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast in 1930, had two 10 cylinder doubleacting four stoke engines with blast injection. Each engine developed 13 000bhp. In addition to electricians there were seven engineers employed on each watch, with the engine room divided into two compartments. The camshaft areas were generally full of smoke. An oil haze permeated most of the machinery spaces. Every light had its own halo. Forward of the main engine room there was an auxiliary engine room that housed four blast diesel engines that drove direct current generators and four more blast diesel engines that drove the air compressors that provided the 1 000 psi blast air. Main and auxiliary diesel engine starting air was provided from the 250 psi second stages of the compressors. This room also housed two Scotch type boilers for machinery and ship services requirements. As can be readily envisaged, the learning curve required by young marine engineers to correctly operate all the machinery and the pumping connexions and all the hotel and deck services would have been immense. This was the era when the major electrical textbook1 for engineer’s examinations, in providing examples of elementary electrical calculations, said, “No one knows what electricity really is.” The writer suggests that Mr Lamb had long before recognised the powerlessness of ignorance and had resolved his life’s work accordingly. It was during Mr Lamb’s sea service on motor ships between 1914 and 1921 that he wrote “The Running and Maintenance of the Marine Diesel Engine”, first published in 1919. In 1920 Mr Lamb was elected to Associate Membership of the Institute of Marine Engineers. It was during his shore service for Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Company at Singapore between 1921 and 1924 that his book “Questions and Answers on the Marine Diesel Engine” was published in 1921 with the second edition following in 1924. Between these years he also submitted his first two papers on the oil engine. Mr Lamb was promoted from sea staff to shore staff by Anglo-Saxon in 1924. By 1934, the year he was elected an Associate Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Mr Lamb’s book “Question and Answers on Diesel, Semi-Diesel and Other Internal Combustion Engines and Air Compressors”, was in its 5th edition, while the “The Operation of Motor Ship Auxiliary Machinery”, had just been published. By now he was a Corporate Member of the Institute of Marine Engineers. Between 1936 and 1938 Mr Lamb published four highly informative articles dealing with the operation of marine oil engines. In particular, “The Operation of Marine Oil Engines”, a paper he presented in 1935 before the North East Coast District Society of Consulting Marine Engineers and Ship Surveyors, was a rich provision of the experience he had gained over many years of his superintendency. The same comments also apply to his 1938 contribution, “Preparing a Diesel Engine for Sea”, clearly written with junior engineers in mind. THE PIONEERING OF FURNACE OIL AS FUEL FOR MARINE DIESEL ENGINES While compression ignition engine propulsion had found great favour with ship owners because of the savings in fuel costs when compared to steam engine propulsion, until oil companies provided a very widely distributed supply of refined diesel oil at prices that enabled a motor ship to show a lower fuel bill than a corresponding steam ship, the progress of diesel propulsion was being constrained. Furthermore the commercial benefit which results from successfully using furnace oil as fuel in compression ignition engines in place of refined diesel oil, was obvious to ship owners long before the Great War, as was the obvious need to replace steam engines by diesel machinery. The cost of 1 Ibbetson, W.S. (1935) Electricity for Marine Engineers, E & F.N. Spon, Ltd., London 7 furnace oil is roughly half the cost of refined diesel oil. Many superintendent engineers of large shipping companies between the two World Wars had sought to burn boiler oil in diesel engines but their attempts had not been satisfactory. What made Mr Lamb’s attempt successful, was his meticulous planning and his personal hands-on involvement. As a corollary to his work, its very success required shipbuilders and others to implement supportive technical innovations. Among many other matters, ship design, auxiliary machinery and their allied services all required manufacturing reassessment. Lubricating oils with different and more specific properties became necessary. Furnace oil produced problems of abnormally heavy wear and fouling in certain engine parts, particularly in parts of two stroke engines. Strong acids derived from boiler fuel combustion intensified corrosion, while more rapid fouling of pistons and cylinders was due to the more highly acidic combustion products than were produced by diesel oil. Neutralising oil-additives and emulsion type oils were needed in place of the lubricating oils that were being generally used at the time. The running of marine diesel machinery upon prolonged load when using furnace oil as fuel failed because after a comparatively short time carbon would form on the fuel valve nozzles and interfere with the proper spraying of the fuel inside the combustion space. The resulting incomplete combustion would cause solid matter to accumulate in the cylinders, the piston rings would jam up and would permit blow-past and if the engine was a four-stroke, the malfunctioning combustion process would cause overheating damage to the exhaust valves. Lamb’s interest in the problem took on major focus when he was made responsible for the technical operation of his employer’s very large fleet of tankers in 1940. This was the year when 1 059 allied ships were sunk, principally in the Atlantic Ocean, 471 by submarine. This was the year of Dunkirk, so crucial to Britain’s survival. Later, with the support of his principals in 1944, Lamb requested the St Peter’s works of Hawthorn Leslie & Co to build a single cylinder version of the Werkspoor four-stroke engines that powered the bulk of Anglo-Saxon’s petroleum tanker fleet. Pursuant to his conviction that boiler fuel would be just as effective in compression ignition engines as distilled fuels providing that the ash, abrasive matter and the small metallic traces were removed, Lamb engaged the renowned Alfa-Laval Centrifuge company to do a series of tests upon the different grades of furnace oil that he proposed to use in his engine tests. It can be well argued that the resulting actions taken by Lamb upon the basis of the results of tests he requested be made by the Alfa-Laval laboratories, changed the course of diesel engine design. Not only was the customary centrifuge design changed in accordance with Lamb’s wishes but an additional purifier of different design was introduced to extract matter from the fuel that the purifier could not. New pipeline and heating schemes became necessary. The initial hand cleaning of the ash and other matter removed by purification-clarification procedures gave way to automatic de-sludging, making the operation and the machinery spaces far cleaner, far less laborious and properly systematic. In a hallmark contribution to the knowledge, Lamb presented his results in a notably distinguished paper “The Burning of Boiler Fuels in Marine Diesel Engines” to the Institute of Marine Engineers at 5.30pm on December 9th 1947. His paper meticulously detailed the results of the many operating trials he conducted using various grades of furnace oil to operate the single cylinder test engine. He reported in great detail about cylinder liner and piston ring wear together with all the relevant temperatures and pressures associated with operating the engine upon varying degrees of load. Finally, after days of testing, during which sections of the engine were dismantled for running inspections, improvements, adjustment and cleaning, and confident of success in his project, he put the engine on full load (530 IHP), for seven days using 1,300 sec (Redwood #1 @ 100º F) boiler oil. Formerly the engine would have used fuel of about 70 sec (Red #1 @ 100º F). 8 9 10 11 12 All the parts used in his test engine for the seven day trial were standard Werkspoor parts. Lamb’s paper describes in complete detail the condition of all major components of the engine when opened up for inspection at the completion of the trial. He included a table portraying all the relevant engine temperatures and pressures and other operating detail with unsurpassed thoroughness. He presented the results of chemical analysis done upon the carbonaceous deposits taken from the sides of the piston, to determine whether fuel or lubricating oil provided the major origin. He provided two comprehensive chemical analyses of the sediment extracted by the purifier and by the clarifier, in which he detailed percentages of the trace elements and the ash contents in given samples. The colour of the loaded engine exhaust smoke was critically discussed as was all aspects of fuel injection timing. But final proof of Lamb’s conjecture that marine propulsion diesel engines could be modified to operate economically and reliably using furnace oil as fuel, if any proof was needed, was readily inferable from the power cards taken from the engine during its full load test upon the 1 300 sec oil (Red #1 @ 100º F). In particular the superposition of two power cards, the one taken when the engine was running upon diesel fuel and the other taken when the engine was running on heavy fuel at equal power, to all intents and purposes are identical. The work had absorbed one year. The war was still progressing and Lamb had shouldered the project in conjunction with all the other arduous maritime war work for which he was responsible. His success justified his decision to begin fitting the equipment necessary for the burning of 1 500 sec fuel (Red #1 @ 100º F) upon ships of the AngloSaxon oil tanker fleet. The first ship he selected was the MT Auricula, a 12 250 dwt 12 knot single screw ship powered by a four stroke 4 000 IHP Werkspoor diesel engine of eight cylinders with bore, stroke and design size comparable to his single cylinder test engine. After successful sea trials, the Auricula entered service to Curacao on August 17th 1946, following the end of the war. Mr Lamb instructed that all details of the sea performance of the engine using grades of fuel ranging from 1 200 to 1 470 seconds (Red #1 @ 100ºF) be recorded. He reported upon the many changes in fuel treatment temperatures and pressures he implemented as he sought to optimise the economies his ideas had introduced. The results he reported ranged from accounting for the differences in calorific values of the fuels used, to depicting in three dimensions the new pipeline layouts he was implementing in his new construction. Almost as an aside, but a crucial result, he gave evidence obtained from three round voyages, that with all things considered equal and with diesel oil costing 83/- per ton as opposed to the heavy 1 480 sec (Red #1 @ 100ºF) costing 61/- per ton, which had been used by the Auricula, the use of heavy fuel produced savings in fuel costs of the order of 36%. Obviously greater monetary savings would be applicable to engines of greater power. All things equal, not only did Lamb’s work translate into cheaper fuel operating costs, it also reflected advantageously upon the tonnage of the reserve bunkers and cargo carried over the life of a ship. Noting that a 300 000 dwt tanker today might consume on average 69.5 kg of heavy fuel costing US$13.90 per minute puts Lamb’s contribution into the perspective of today. Mr Lamb’s lecture consisted of twenty-four pages. The recorded discussion and the author’s reply comprised a further fourteen pages. Such was the respect accorded Mr Lamb when he presented his paper at the Institute’s Minories building that the names of his colleagues who attended not only reflected highly upon Mr Lamb, but also upon the Institute’s as a centre of advanced learning. To mention only a few of the many internationally known engineers and scientists who made important contributions to the knowledge, the names of Mr P Jackson2, Mr G J Lugt3, Commander (E) L Baker4 DSC., (RN) are prominent. 2 3 P Jackson Director and Manager of Research and Development, William Doxford and Sons (Engineers Ltd). G. Lugt Technical Director, Werkspoor Diesel Engines. Amsterdam. 4 Commander (E) L Baker DSC. Chief Superintendent Engineer, Alfred Holt and Company, Liverpool. 13 Probably the most instructive comment on the night was made by Mr C W G Martin (visitor), who noted “that while furnace oil as fuel had been tried previously, this was the first time that it had been tried successfully”, thus confirming the distinguished contribution that Lamb had made. In recognition of this major advance in marine engineering, Mr Lamb was awarded the Institute’s Denny Gold Medal. This is an annual award given by the Institute to the member who has been judged to have presented the most worthy paper. The medal is accompanied by a certificate and a modest monetary award. Three years later in 1950 Mr Lamb presented “Further Developments in the Burning of Boiler Fuels in Marine Diesel Engines”, a paper equalling in detailed magnitude the value of his first paper. He reported the results of further sea experience of the MT Auricula and in doing so provided full, free and frank comments. The wealth of accurate detail covering all aspects of the ship’s machinery operation could not have been surpassed. Throughout the paper, where Lamb found problems he discussed them, explained how he corrected them, and then pointed to the way of the future. While his paper reported largely upon the Auricula and its eight cylinder four-cycle Werkspoor diesel engine, Lamb also included discussion about Burmeister & Wain, MAN and Doxford engines thereby extending his use of furnace oil into the field of two cycle and other makes of engines. Of the many internationally known marine engineers present on the night of Lamb’s presentation, the remarks of three speakers attesting to the benefits from Lamb’s work are mentioned. Mr F G van Asperin5 of Werkspoor reported that upon learning Mr Lamb proposed to use 3 500 sec (Red #1 @ 100ºF) fuel upon the Auricula, Werkspoor followed his lead by introducing a similar fuel to a supercharged two-stroke engine that was available upon their test-bed. Mr van Asperin corroborated Lamb’s successful use of furnace oil as fuel. Commander L Baker remarked that his own results using boiler fuel for the operation of a diesel generator engine were so satisfactory that all the ships in the Ocean Steamship fleet were being converted to run on boiler oil. Mr A G Arnold6 also reported experience using boiler oil as fuel in one of the motor ships in his company, adding that as soon as self-cleaning purifiers were available, conversion to heavy fuel usage would be authorised. In presenting his results Mr Lamb had established the employment of furnace oil as fuel for marine diesel propulsion engines. THE PIONEERING OF THE MARINE GAS TURBINE - SEAGOING PROPULSION In March 1952, the Shell tanker Auris crossed the Atlantic from the UK propelled solely by an electric propulsion system driven by a gas turbine. The voyage was trouble free and the 12 000 dwt tanker averaged 7.25 kts for the voyage. It was the first time that such a commercial maritime voyage had been made using a gas turbine. In a paper he presented before a distinguished audience of Marine Engineers in London in 1953, backed by his directors, Mr Lamb reported in detail the results obtained over two years of operating the first gas turbine to be used for the purpose of propulsion of a merchant ship. He presented his reasons for pioneering the use of gas turbines at sea based upon the following criteria. (i) When lying idle, the amount of capital not represented by machinery is of the order of 60% for cargo ships and 80% of the total in the case of passenger ships. It follows that unless a ship’s hull is badly damaged or requires extensive repairs, the bulk of the capital is nonproductive when machinery is being repaired. (ii) The machinery should be such as to enable its use for propulsion at sea and cargo handling in port, in order to fully utilise the capital costs. In the case of standard motor tankers, the cargo handling machinery lies idle for 92% of the ship’s operational time. In the case of 5 6 F G van Asperin Technical Director, Werkspoor Diesel Engines, Amsterdam A G Arnold Chief Superintendent Engineer. Alfred Holt and company, Liverpool. 14 steam ships, while main boilers can be utilised for cargo work, their usage reduces the time available for their maintenance and propulsion efficiency can therefore suffer. The Auris was launched on the Tyne by the Hawthorn Leslie yard in 1948 to Mr Lamb’s technical specifications. The powering was by four 1 105 bhp diesel engines that generated propulsion by electric motor. The engine room layout provided for the use of heavy fuel together with provision for future substitution of one of the diesels by a gas turbine that Mr Lamb had also specified. In conjunction with Mr Duggan, his assistant and co-author, Mr Lamb’s work took the knowledge about marine use of gas turbines a major forward step. His comprehensive study documented not only the two years’ machinery operation but it also established a platform from which further progress in the field could be made. In an industry where machinery reliability is crucial, such information had not been known before. Lamb’s conjectures which led to his implementation of a combined diesel and gas turbine merchant vessel (CODAG) system have translated 50 years on, to such majestic liners as the new Queen Mary 2 . The Lamb – Duggan paper occupies eighteen pages in the 1953 Institute’s Transactions. The contributions and expert discussion adds a further eleven pages. The names of the many engineers of international repute who contributed to the knowledge of the lecture are too numerous to mention here but they include Sir Harold Roxbee Cox, famous for his aeronautical, gas turbine and other work; Mr John Bulman a Hawthorn-Leslie director, and Mr B E G Forsling, the designer of the British Thompson-Houston Auris gas turbine. Such was the esteem afforded to the authors of the paper that the Institute of Marine Engineers awarded them the Denny Gold medal for 1953. It was Mr Lamb’s second Denny Gold Medal. INVESTIGATION OF THE CAUSES OF CRANKCASE EXPLOSIONS IN MARINE DIESEL ENGINES. Until Mr Lamb published his seminal paper in April 1952 detailing the reasons that were associated with frequently disastrous diesel engine crankcase explosions, seagoing marine engineers did their job by necessarily relying upon the diesel engine design criteria of the engine builders coupled with the assurances provided by classification authority rules. The paper Mr Lamb presented before the Institution of Mechanical Engineers entitled “Explosions in Enclosed Crankcases of Reciprocating Engines: Their cause, Effect and Possible Remedy”, created a debate that exposed the flaws in this trusting and complacent belief. The paper was judged to be of such valuable merit as to earn the author the Herbert Ackroyd Stuart Prize7 which is awarded triennially by The Institution of Mechanical Engineers. This is a very prestigious prize. Lamb’s paper reports not only his meticulous technical investigation of the likely sources and consequences of crankcase explosions, but also points up the wide divergence of views of the classification authorities on the requirements for crankcase relief valve venting areas, explosion flame suppression and crankcase strength. The premier UK classification society, Lloyds Register, in fact had no stipulated design criteria associated with the internal pressures a marine diesel engine crankcase should be expected to withstand before bursting. They merely stipulated ‘robust construction’. Where Lloyds Register recommended 1 square inch of vent area per 5 cubic feet of crankcase volume, the classification society American Bureau of Shipping recommended an area 2.5 times larger. The more Mr Lamb delved into his topic the stronger the inferences became that the diesel engine builders, together with the classification societies they utilised and who were responsible for framing the governing design rules, could well be judged deficient in their role of safeguarding the sea-going men who operated their approved machinery. 7 This is a hallmark triennial prize begun in 1927 under a legacy left to the Institution by Mr Herbert Ackroyd Stuart whose name was so closely associated with the development of the heavy-oil engine. The prize is awarded for the best paper on the subject of “The Origin and Development of Heavy-Oil Engines”. It carries with it an Institution certificate and a small emolument 15 On the issue of crankcase vent area, Mr C C Pounder, the technical director of the internationally renowned Harland & Wolff shipbuilding and engineering company in Belfast, said that in the fifteen previous years H&W used a ‘vent areas to crankcase volume ratio’ of 1/10, only recently improving the ratio to 1/2. On the matter of crankcase construction strength, it could be inferred that one expert in attendance sought to excuse Lloyds Register by saying that crankcase structures capable of withstanding internal pressures above 5 psi were difficult to design. Yet another expert volunteered his opinion that since ‘hot-spots’ in operating compression ignition engines could never be entirely eliminated he urged the development of non-inflammable lubricants as a solution to the dangers of explosion. In essence, Mr Lamb’s paper had exposed the overall industry to the inference that it was deficient in not understanding that the dangerous machinery designs which had culminated in the shocking deaths aboard the Reina del Pacifico, still prevailed unchanged. Mr Lamb presented results upon crankcase explosion testing. He discussed the resulting consequences of two crankcase explosions suffered by one of his company’s own engines and provided evidence of the effectiveness of increasing the vent areas. He discussed explosive oil mixtures, temperatures, explosive flame propagation and pressures. He introduced, tested and reported upon flame retardation traps. He gave recommendations about the capabilities and the designs of crankcase pressure relief valves and the way to prevent secondary explosions. Secondary explosions occur when gases unburnt by the primary explosion cause as a result the formation of a second explosive mixture that is ignited by the original flame propagation. Then, notwithstanding the major advances he had already reported to his audience regarding the prevention of crankcase explosion allied with other associated matters, Mr Lamb concluded his lecture by announcing he proposed to do further experimental work and to report upon it in due course. He intended to utilise a 1 005 bhp trunk piston engine taken from his Anglo-Saxon tank ship Auris and by producing controlled crankcase explosions in an operating engine, to provide from all his tests the crucial design knowledge that was essential to better protect human life. Whether intended or not, this concluding proposal by Mr Lamb, coupled with the work that he was now reporting on the night, had the effect of diminishing the credibility of diesel engine builders and the associated classification authorities. Vaguely referred to but left unmentioned, was the fact that four full years had elapsed since the twenty-eight men died in the engine room of the Reina del Pacifico. In essence it could readily be inferred from his paper that Mr Lamb had decided to put himself in charge of finding the urgently needed solutions to the issues of diesel engine crankcase explosions. Mr Lamb’s lecture was attended by 153 people, 113 of whom were members of the Institution, many of them distinguished in their respective fields. The president of the Institution, Sir David Pye, proposed the vote of thanks to conclude a most memorable night. FURTHER CONTRIBUTIONS Mr Lamb was a member of the North East Coast Institute of Engineers and Shipbuilders. This was a prominent learned society founded in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in 1884 with membership drawn from the many famous shipyards and engineering works in the region. His contributions to this Institute include, The preservation of oil tanker hulls. Trans V69, 1952-53 Cathodic protection of cargo spaces in oil tankers. Trans V70, 1953-54 The recovery of oil from sludge in oil tankers. Trans V74, 1957-58 The first two papers were written jointly with Mr E V Mathias of International Paints UK. Such was the merit of the first paper that the Institute awarded the authors their prestigious M C James medal. Mr Lamb was also a Fellow of the Institute of Petroleum. 16 CONCLUSION By any hallmark the contribution to the art and the science of engineering by John Lamb was clearly superb and a wonderful example to engineers of his own and future generations. Associated in this was the generous manner in which the directors of Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Company (Shell), supported Mr Lamb in all of his enterprises during his association with them. Their manner is worthy of emulation today in as much as the directors of his company never sought applause that correctly belonged to Mr Lamb and generous because by permitting Mr Lamb to publish all his work, benefit was brought as much to others as it was brought to Anglo-Saxon, since Lamb’s published work contained technical and other detail which normally would never be made available to other superintendent engineers and ship-owners. This was a period of Britain’s commendable sharing of technical knowledge. It was also the period where there was no agenda by any of Britain’s leading ship or associated machinery engine builders or owners, to cloak the brilliance of any individual under the euphemism of ‘team work’, as appears is the management practice of today using the cerement of ‘Corporate Innovation’. Rather, it was those engineers at the forefront of technical and innovative expertise who were eulogised. It has also been the writer’s experience that all new ideas and innovations can be traced to an individual author, the spark, and not to a conforming ‘team’ nor to ‘management’, per se. Accolades belong rightfully to the creative person responsible and it seems to be the duty of the professional engineering bodies to their members to positively identify and promote this. The writer suggests that the award of a MSc or a Doctorate by a university at the behest of a professional engineering body, upon the basis of published excellent innovative work identified to an engineer, should be warmly encouraged by the profession. It is difficult to conceive a better way to promote both national advantage and professional prestige. Mr Lamb was a professing Christian. He came from a life that was all struggle and encounters with difficulty; groping in the dark after greater light but always persevering in dedicated earnest. The awards accorded to him were recognition by his peers that he was not only marching in the front line with his colleagues but was carrying the banner. John Lamb O.B.E died on the 12th August 1958, aged 67. He was survived by his wife and their married daughter. In the world of technical education with its incalculable value to the prosperity of all nations, Mr Lamb’s contribution in the marine engineering field was sovereign. Let us therefore honour Mr Lamb a hero, as an engineer. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author would like to thank Mr J McRae of the Institute of Marine Engineers, Science and Technology and Mr K Moore of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers for their helpful research of their library records. Further appreciation is expressed to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers for providing details of Mr Lamb’s Membership. The author was also aided in this work by recollections and notes received from Ian Buxton, Richard Carter, Anthony Wickens, Tom Scott, Maurice Clyde and other engineering colleagues residing on the UK North East Coast, and gives his thanks accordingly. Thanks are also given to Maurice James of the Sydney Branch IMarEST, who sailed as a junior engineer on both the Britannic and the Georgic, for his recollections. 17 REFERENCES The diesel engine drawings are abstracted from Marine Diesel Oil Engines - A manual of marine engine practice 9th edition, Sothern and Bowden (authors), James Munro & Co Ltd Glasgow (publishers), to whom the author acknowledges with thanks. BIBLIOGRAPHY The bibliography is a list of contributions to the science of engineering published by Mr Lamb contained in the IMarEST library. This present work focuses upon certain selected topics. Therefore not all the references mentioned are referred to directly in the work. Backward Thinking (1954) John Lamb Publications Oil Tanker Cargoes – their safe and efficient handling (1954) Charles Griffin & Co Ltd. London The Operation of Motorship Auxiliary Machinery Vols 1 (1934) and 2 (1935). Charles Griffin & Co Ltd. London. Questions and Answers on the Marine Diesel Engine (1965). Charles Griffin & Co Ltd. London Questions and Answers on the Construction and Operation of Diesel, Semi-Diesel and Other Internal Combustion Engines, & Air Compressors (1946) Charles Griffin & Co Ltd. London. The Running and Maintenance of the Marine Diesel Engine. 3rd Edition (1927) Charles Griffin & Co Ltd. London The Running and Maintenance of the Marine Diesel Engine. 5th Edition (1945) Charles Griffin & Co Ltd. London The Running and Maintenance of the Marine Diesel Engine. 5th Edition (1949) Charles Griffin & Co Ltd. London The Running and Maintenance of the Marine Diesel Engine. 6th Edition (1958) Charles Griffin & Co Ltd. London Journal Articles. The Burning of Boiler Fuels in Marine Diesel Engines (1948) Diesel engine operation Notes (1938) Fuel combustion adjustments of diesel engines (1936) Further developments in the burning of boiler fuels in Marine diesel engines (1950) Operation of a marine gas turbine under sea conditions (1953) The operation of marine oil engines (1936) Preparing a diesel engine for sea (1938) APPENDICES Appendix 1 depicts Mr Lamb’s application to join the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and indicates his election as an Associate Member in 1934. Appendix 2 depicts Mr Lamb’s transfer from Associate Member to Member in 1950. 18 Appendix 1 19 20 21 Appendix 2 22 23 EPILOGUE It seems essential to the writer that the professional engineering bodies retain a tight scrutiny upon the content of university and other qualifications they accept for any level of professional membership. Engineering is, as the original charter of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers emphasises, both an art and a science. Any assessment of qualifications for eminent membership must include consideration of one or both of these aspects as associated to engineering. Engineers who decide upon the steelwork restoration of a ship following severe grounding such as was experienced by the Nottingham, or the safe repairs required to a high pressure water-tube boiler after an incendiary superheater-uptake fire, or a grounding that has moved the bedplate of a 30 000 kW diesel engine, do so utilising vanguard experience gained over many years. The experience they bring to a task embraces ingenuity, intuition and wisdom. Their decisions are trusted. As a corollary, in the world’s shipping industry the value of actual marine engineering experience deserves preponderant regard in the award of a Chief Engineer’s certificate. Difficult to quantify yet readily recognisable by peers, experience is the pathway to leadership and is therefore a crucial component, above all supervacaneous learning, in the status of Chartered Engineer. Mr Lamb was an exemplar of this attribute. “Lord, Thou hast made this world below the shadow of a dream, An',taught by time, I tak' it so - exceptin' always Steam. From coupler-flange to spindle-guide I see Thy Hand, O God Predestination in the stride o' yon connectin'-rod”. McAndrew And His Engine – Rudyard Kipling 24