Description
By John Reynolds, Hardback, 264 Pages, ISBN: 9781844255160, Second Edition, 2008
- Expanded Second Edition of the life and work of Sir Harry Ricardo
Harry Ricardo, founder of the world-renowned British automotive engine research establishment, Ricardo plc, is one of Britain's best-kept technological secrets. He ranks with Henry Royce and Frederick Lanchester as one of that very small hand of British engineers and designers whose work had a profound influence on the early development of the internal combustion engine. But although his achievements were repeatedly honoured throughout the automobile and aircraft engine-building industries during his lifetime, today his name is largely unknown to the public who benefit so greatly from the transport revolution he helped bring about. Because he preferred to work behind the scenes as an independent consultant, Ricardo was never directly connected with any specific make of car or plane, much less a product bearing his name. But his efforts on behalf of companies such as Rolls-Royce, Vauxhall, Bentley, Bristol, Napier, Citroen and Fiat led to innumerable advances in the performance and reliability of military and civilian engines during the inter-war years.
Beginning with an account of Sir Harry's family background and education at Rugby and Cambridge, this lavishly illustrated second edition of John Reynolds' definitive biography traces Ricardo's work through six decades, a period that witnessed greatchanges in the social and industrial fabric of Britain. Backed by the Anglo-Dutch Shell petroleum company, Ricardo opened his research establishment at Shoreham in 1919, initially to study the problems of matching fuels with engines, an investigation that led to the concept of classifying fuels by their octane rating. Later, his research into the design of small high-speed diesel engines for road transport led to the universal adoption of the compression-ignition engine for trucks, buses and taxis, and production of the world's first diesel-engine car, introduced by Citroen in 1934.
Sir Harry's genius lay behind the success of the Bristol Perseus, Hercules and Centaurus series of sleeve-valve air-cooled radial aircraft engines that powered the British military and civilian air transport fleet for almost 30 years. He was also a skilled scientific writer and educator: his book The High Speed Internal Combustion Engine became the standard text of automobile engine design. In 1929, he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society and in 1948 he received a knighthood in recognition of his outstanding contribution to British engineering.
Ricardo died in 1974, having seen his company grow to become the world's foremost independent internal combustion engine research establishment, retained as consultants by most of the leading car, truck and tractor manufacturers.
An established motoring journalist, author and historian, John Reynolds has written four books for Haynes, including a biography of Andre Citroen
