Ford’s Engines

HENRY FORD WAS INDEED A GREAT IN novator (“Henry Ford’s Big Flaw,” by John M. Staudenmaier, S.J.), but I question that those are “6000-horsepower gas-turbine engines in the powerhouse” shown on page 38 of the Fall 1994 issue. The prime movers driving the dynamos appear to be cross-compound Corliss steam engines. Gas turbines didn’t become available for industrial use until well after World War II.

The editors reply : The caption erred. The nine engines in the powerhouse were not gas turbines, which indeed did not yet exist in practical form, but combination gas-steam engines. Each unit consisted of a horizontal twin engine with tandem gas-engine cylinders on one side and tandem compound-steam cylinders on the other. The idea was to combine the economy and power of gas engines with the reliability and regularity of steam.

Forrest Gober
Austin, Tex.