I thought I’d share this piece of history. Great story I’ve never read. https://carbuzz.com/first-supercharger-made-earlier-than-you-think/
Really….. There were turbochargers in service before 1861…to quote Dick Martin, “I didn’t know that!”
The article says the supercharger was invented before electricity. I beg to differ. I struggle with what magic ethereal force powered the electric motors of the 1830's if electricity was not "invented" until after 1849. "Mercedes-Benz were the first ones to strap a supercharger to a car's engine. However, the supercharger's story begins much earlier than that. So much earlier, in fact, things like electricity and the telephone hadn't been invented, and the American Civil War hadn't even been fought yet. Back in 1849, a Mr. G. Jones of Birmingham, England, had an idea for some type of device which could be used to ventilate coal shafts." (i.e. the lobe type blower, the first "supercharger"). William Sturgeon In 1832, the English physicist invented the first DC electric motor that could power machinery, but it had a low power output. Thomas Davenport In 1837, the American inventor and his wife Emily patented a DC electric motor that was based on Sturgeon's design. Davenport's motor could run at up to 600 revolutions per minute and powered a printing press and model train. However, the motor was not commercially successful due to the high cost of battery power. Moritz Von Jacobi In 1834, the Russian inventor built an electric motor that set a world record for mechanical power output. In 1835, he demonstrated his motor's increased power by powering a boat that ferried 14 people across a river.
A bit of "creative" writing here by combining completly unrelated facts, commonly known as click bait.
I think it more of the evolution of a design the morphed into use for an IC engine. But it wasn’t mentioned what actually spun the first designs to pump in fresh air? Hand crank like a forge blower maybe, geared like one too?
In day’s of old when Knight’s were bold and the toilet wasn’t invented. They’d drop their load a long the road and walk away contented.
When did the steam engine first come to life? Ventilating mine shafts sounds like a logical place to start developing forced air movement. Those things could have been done with a heavy single cylinder steam engine, but a lighter weight battery powered electric motor would have been a huge step forward. Once something very large was designed and functioned to force the movement of air, some guy with a fledgling automobile company was going to invest the time to see if he could improve it and if it would work on his automobile. Others learned from his experience and made improvements until someone got it close to being right, then some worked to improve from that. That is still the entire story of the automobile history, except those guys are now working for large auto companies instead of their own small auto companies.
Lee Chadwick developed a blower for his 1907 Chadwick, it was driven by the flywheel using a flat belt. He later built a three stage blower for his cars. I found this photo at a swap meet years ago, it took me a while to ID it.
The Jalopy Journal
