Herbert Akroyd-Stuart (January 28 1864, Halifax Yorkshire, England - February 19 1927, Western Australia)

Inventor of the hot bulb heavy oil engine.

He had lived in Australia in his early years. His first prototypes were built in 1886. His engines were built from 1891 by Richard Hornsby and Sons of Grantham, Lincolnshire, England under the title Hornsby Akroyd Patent Oil Engine under licence.

Similar engines were built by Bolinder in Sweden and some of these still survive in canal boats.

Richard Hornsby and Sons built the world's first oil-engined railway locomotive LACHESIS for the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, England, in 1896.

The modern Diesel engine is a hybrid incorporating the features of direct (airless) injection patented by Akroyd-Stuart in 1890 and compression ignition, patented by Rudolf Diesel in 1892. Akroyd-Stuart's compression ignition engine (compared to spark-ignition) was invented two years earlier than Diesel's similar engine.

The University of Nottingham has hosted the Akroyd-Stuart Memorial Lecture each year in his memory since 1928. One was presented by Sir Frank Whittle in the 1940s (when the first jet planes were built). Akroyd Stuart had worked with Professor William Robinson of the university in the late 1800s.

External links

• Biography.
• Relation to the Ruston and Hornsby history.
• History of his Oil Engine.

1864 births | 1927 deaths | Mechanical engineers | Natives of Yorkshire