William Dent Priestman (1847–1936) patented in 1885 an internal combustion engine to burn fuels heavier than petrol. Introduced in 1886, it was the first commercially successful engine of its type in the United Kingdom. The biographical paper covers Priestman's engine patents and technical accomplishments as well as business ventures. An assessment of his place in the early history of the development of the internal combustion engine, after 100 years, is discussed.
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References
1.
Thompson's son, SylvanusP. (1851–1916), Was a contemporary of Priestman's. He returned to Bootham after graduating and became one of the first school science teachers in Britain. He was later the first Principal of the City and Guilds Technical College, Finsbury, London, and FRS.
2.
Dent PriestmanWm.Handwritten recollections (Goathland Notes) ca1921, hereinafter referred to as ‘Autobiography’.
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Priestman's daily journal between 13 June and 1 September 1879 (later typed and mimeographed) vividly described the journey. In detailed accounts of the ship's voyage, there are pained references to ‘drunken Fridays’, the capture of a ‘chicken stealer’, and a minister's son who fought on Saturday evening and who ‘will probably sit on one of the front seats at Church tomorrow!’
7.
8.
HarryShoosmithPhilipD. PriestmanWilliam Dent Priestman and the Development of the Oil Engine, Paper S 176, 10 Feb. 1944, p. 1 (Diesel Engine Users Association.).
9.
Autobiography., op cit., p. 21.
10.
Etève British patent No. 3113 of 16 July 1881 listed Charles Lallement as co-inventor. The second patent, No. 2135 of 1884, issued to Etève and Braam under the name of Henderson, their agent.
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Humes' British oil engine patents included Nos 8411 of 1885, 1464, 5597, and 11 269 of 1886, 5632 of 1888.
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ClerkDugaldSir (1854–1932) Had demonstrated one form of two-stroke gas engine in 1879. Thompson, Sterne of Glasgow, Clerk's employer at that time, made a limited number of his engines until an infringement suit brought by Crossley caused it to be dropped a few years later.
14.
Autobiography, op. cit., p. 22.
15.
16.
Ibid., p. 23.
17.
Ibid. However, George Bailey Brayton (1839–1892) developed an oil engine in the United States in 1875 and licensed it to Thompson, Sterne. Dugald Clerk, who made extensive tests on this two-stroke form of cycle engine, most likely received the idea for his own ‘Clerk cycle’ engine as a result. (In the United States the gas turbine is referred to as the ‘Brayton cycle’ because its modified continuous combustion thermodynamic cycle has a similarity to this old oil engine.) Brayton engines were built until the early 1890s, but their efficiency was always much lower than the Otto.
18.
Ibid., p. 22.
19.
Iron, 15 October 1886, pp 344, 347.
20.
Edw. Butler's first carburettor patent No. 15 598 of November 1887 had no butterfly. Wilhelm Maybach's first ‘spray’ carburettor (in contrast with his ‘surface’ carburettors) was not patented in England until 1893 (No. 16072). Deutz introduced a petrol engine in 1884, and they, like others, used surface carburettors.
21.
One page, solicited report by Sir William Thomson dated 7 March 1888. (The cost to Priestman Bros was £100 which included trips to Newcastle and Hull for engine tests.)
DugaldClerkThe Gas and Oil Engine, 6th edition., p. 414 (Wiley, New York) 1896. Even the experts can be in error in their predictions, as evidenced by Clerk's comment on page 463: ‘… and it has always been the author's opinion that any engine with an electric igniting device, even if good in other respects, would not attain extended use in Britain.’ He was an advocate of the hot-tube igniter as first used by Maybach for Daimler or some other form of heated surface exposed to the combustion chamber.
Letter from B. Drysdales in Philadelphia to Priestman Bros dated 23 Sept. 1890 (6 pp, handwritten).
32.
Coleman Sellers The Priestman engine as manufactured in America. Journal of the Franklin Institute, Feb. 1893, 135, No. 2 (the paper was read 21 Dec. 1892).
33.
Boyd's Philadelphia Business Directory gives business addresses for Priestman and Company from 1892–1901.
34.
According to Harry Shoosmith (1866–1956), who designed several of Priestman Bros' later engines, the Hornsby was about thirty per cent cheaper because of its not using an electric ignition system. ‘Unpublished autobiography’, 1950, p. 9.
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PriestmanSydney H.Unpublished notes on the history of Priestman Bros, p. 48.
36.
Priestman Brothers Limited, Proposed Scheme of Arrangement, Dec. 1899.
37.
Minutes of the ‘Final Meeting of Shareholders’, Hull, 22 Nov. 1901. Assets of the old company were transferred to the new one which ‘consists entirely of the Debenture holders’.
38.
PriestmanSydney H.op. cit., p. 51.
39.
Receivers' and Managers' Financial Statement, Jan. 1895 to Oct. 1900. £534 was spent on engine experimental work.
40.
Autobiography, op. cit., p. 33.
41.
Ibid., p. 33.
42.
Ibid., p. 31.
43.
ShoosmithPriestmanop. cit., p. 15, letter from E. R. Hillier.
44.
PriestmanSydney H.op cit. The Prevention of Corruption Act.
45.
DentPriestman WilliamThe Friend, 18 Sept. 1936, obituary notice. To be noted are the five children of William Dent and Marion Bewley Priestman: Lionel, Roland, David, Florence and Philip (the father of co-author James Priestman).
46.
PriestmanSydney H.William Dent Priestman. Journal, 1960–61, No. XXVIII (Hull Association of Engineers).
47.
ClerkDugaldThe Gas and Oil Engine, 6th edition, 1896 (Wiley, New York).
48.
CumminsLyleInternal Fire, 1976 (Carnot Press, Lake Oswego, Oregon).
49.
Sydney H. Priestman William Dent Priestman. Journal, 1960–61, No. XXVIII (Hull Association of Engineers).
50.
WilliamRobinsonGas and Petroleum Engines, 1890 (Spon, London).
51.
HarryShoosmithPriestmanPhilip D.William Dent Priestman and the Development of the Oil Engine, Paper S 176, 10 Feb. 1944 (Diesel Engine Users Association).
52.
UnwinWilliam CawthornePetroleum Engines Proc. Instn. Civ. Engrs, Session 1891–92, 109, Part 3.
