Harry Ricardo - Tank Engines

Tank Engines

In 1915 Ricardo set up a new company, “Engine Patents Ltd.”, which developed the engine that would eventually be used in the first successful tank design, the British Mark V. The Daimler sleeve-valve engine used in the Mark I created copious amounts of smoke, which easily gave away its position. Ricardo was asked to look at the problem of reducing smoky exhaust gases and decided that a new engine was needed. Existing companies were able to undertake construction of such an engine but not the design, so Ricardo designed it himself. As well as having reduced smoke emissions, the new engine was much more powerful than the existing ones. The new six-cylinder engine produced 150 hp (110 kW), compared with 105 hp (78 kW), and later modifications produced 225 hp (168 kW) and 260 hp (190 kW) By April 1917 one hundred engines were being produced a week. A total of over 8,000 of his tank engines were put into military service, making it the first British-designed engine to be produced in large numbers. The Mark IX tank, as well as the British version of the Mark VIII, also used a Ricardo engine. In addition to being fitted to tanks, several hundred of the 150 hp (110 kW) engines were used in France for providing power and light to base workshops, hospitals, camps, etc.