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Feeding The Monster

Bolinder agents, James Pollock and Sons. crank case scavavenge hot bulb engine procedure involved a period of pre-
The engines were successfully installed and passed it on to the Bollinders, who heating followed by squirts of fuel while
in horse boats and thus the company developed their range of semi diesels the heavy flywheel was swung manually.
became the first to motorise in the from this. The engines were so reliable Starting was an art in itself
British Isles. and durable that they were used in barges
throughout the world and Bolinder After converting almost thirty horse
The Bolinder Company was founded in became synonymous with barge engines. boats to motorised barges, the company
Stockholm by the teenage brothers Karl The engines installed by the Grand Canal in 1925 commenced building a fleet of
and Jean Bolinder in 1832. They first Company in 1911 were the 1908 E-type custom-built steel motor barges powered
produced components for steam engines, single-cylinder 8.35 litre direct reversing by Bollinder engines.
railways and sawmill machinery. They engines (invariably 15 bhp). These were
developed their first internal engine, a in continuous use in the fleet until the Over a period of fourteen years, forty
four-stroke hot bulb, in 1893. In 1903 mid-nineteen seventies. eight of these boats were built, each
E.A. Rundlof invented the two stroke, capable of transporting fifty tons of
The semi-diesel is the link between cargo. They were to be the core of the
steam and internal combustion. A canal transport business until it ceased
semi-diesel relies for combustion on in 1960. Today there are only three of the
heat and compression, whereas in Dr. barges with their Bollinder engines in
Diesel’s engine combustion is caused by situ and all of them are of the purpose-
compression alone. The vertical block built motorised fleet. 92.E (my son’s boat)
of the Bollinder is surmounted by a will at some future point have a re-built
pre-heated cast iron hollow hot bulb, Bollinder installed to further strengthen
where combustion takes place, driving the historic fleet.
down the piston through a vent in the
bulb. This remains hot, allowing the Joe Treacy.
fuel to combust and the air to change
without high compression. Peripherals https://www.facebook.com/
such as the water-pump, fuel-oil pumps heritageboats/
in line, each with its own oil well, are
driven by eccentrics from the shaft – https://www.facebook.com/joe.treacy.5
all exposed and fully accessible in the
steam engineering tradition. The starting https://www.facebook.com/ben.f.treacy

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