FIRST STEPS TOWARD SPACE - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

NUMBER 10
FIGURE 21.—General Crocco (1), Theodore von Karman (2), and the General's son (3) at the Fifth
Volta Conference, 1935.
explosion limit was found to be around 400°C.
Having, in 1933, reached the conclusion that
nitromethane is an easy substance to handle,' we
tested its gasification in the apparatus of Figure 18,
where it behaved according to the theoretical predictions.
Encouraged by these results and by the lack of
any adverse indications, my father and I started
contemplating other uses for the interesting properties
of nitromethane. There was, indeed, very
little interest among Air Force officials in the future
of rockets. However, Italy had captured some high
altitude airplane records, and high altitude flights
were fashionable. Consequently we thought of applying
nitromethane to the design of an engine
which could produce power in the absence of air.
The monocylinder engine, shown schematically
in Figure 19, was designed and built. It was intended
to work on the two-stroke cycle, whereby the
nitromethane was injected in the residual gases of
the previous cycle recompressed to a high temperature
during the compression stroke.
Fortunately high-pressure fuel injection systems
for Diesel engines had become commercially available
in those years, thanks to the Bosch Company.
For demonstration purposes, a hand-operated Bosch
injection system was first tested in the apparatus
shown in Figure 20. The gas generator B, similar to,
but smaller than, that of Figure 18, was fed by the
pump P and discharged its gases on a small turbine
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