Prior to the invention of the turbocharger, forced induction was only possible using mechanically-powered superchargers. Use of superchargers began in 1878, when several supercharged two-stroke gas engines were built using a design by Scottish engineer Dugald Clerk. Then in 1885, Gottlieb Daimler patented the technique of using a gear-driven pump to force air into an internal combustion engine.
The 1905 patent by Alfred Büchi, a Swiss engineer working at Sulzer is often considered the birth of the turbocharger. This patent was for a compound radial engine with an exhaust-driven axial flow turbine and compressor mounted on a common shaft. The first prototype was finished in 1915 with the aim of overcoming the power loss experienced by aircraft engines due to the decreased density of air at high altitudes. However, the prototype was not reliable and did not reach production. Another early patent for turbochargers was applied for in 1916 by French steam turbine inventor Auguste Rateau, for their intended use on the Renault engines used by French fighter planes. Separately, testing in 1917 by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and Sanford Alexander Moss showed that a turbocharger could enable an engine to avoid any power loss (compared with the power produced at sea level) at an altitude of up to 4,250 m above sea level. The testing was conducted at Pikes Peak in the United States using the Liberty L-12 aircraft engine.
The first commercial application of a turbocharger was in June 1924 when the first heavy duty turbocharger, model VT402, was delivered from the Baden works of Brown, Boveri & Cie, under the supervision of Alfred Büchi, to SLM, Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works in Winterthur. This was followed very closely in 1925, when Alfred Büchi successfully installed turbochargers on ten-cylinder diesel engines, increasing the power output from 1,300 to 1,860 kilowatts. This engine was used by the German Ministry of Transport for two large passenger ships called the Preussen and Hansestadt Danzig. The design was licensed to several manufacturers and turbochargers began to be used in marine, railcar and large stationary applications.
Turbochargers were used on several aircraft engines during World War II, beginning with the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress in 1938, which used turbochargers produced by General Electric. Other early turbocharged airplanes included the Consolidated B-24 Liberator, Lockheed P-38 Lightning, Republic P-47 Thunderbolt and experimental variants of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190.
The first practical application for trucks was realized by Swiss truck manufacturing company Saurer in the 1930s. BXD and BZD engines were manufactured with optional turbocharging from 1931 onwards. The Swiss industry played a pioneering role with turbocharging engines as witnessed by Sulzer, Saurer and Brown, Boveri & Cie.
Automobile manufacturers began research into turbocharged engines during the 1950s, however the problems of "turbo lag" and the bulky size of the turbocharger were not able to be solved at the time.The first turbocharged cars were the short-lived Chevrolet Corvair Monza and the Oldsmobile Jetfire, both introduced in 1962. Greater adoption of turbocharging in passenger cars began in the 1980s, as a way to increase the performance of smaller displacement engines.
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