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Power Onward is the podcast that unveils how power technology shapes your everyday life.
From the tech powering your daily life to the innovations driving industries forward, we talk about it all.
Brought to you by Cummins, each episode explores what’s fueling the future and why it matters for your mission, business, and community.
Show ID [00:00:22]:
This is Power Onward, the podcast that unveils how power technology shapes your everyday life.
Kim [00:00:31]:
The idea of flexible fuel sources dates back, like, over a century, when early engines, like the bead oil engine, could run on nearly anything. Today, we're working on engines that can run on things you couldn't even imagine, like water if you break it down into hydrogen. If you're curious about the future of fuel, we've got more in store for you.
Kim [00:00:53]:
Hi, I'm Kim.
Lori [00:00:53]:
Hi, I'm Lori.
Kim [00:00:55]:
Lori, thank you so much for joining us on the show. I'm curious to know how you got so into history and archives and all of these keepsakes that you surround yourself with on the daily.
Lori [00:01:05]:
I just love history, for one, But I also love the future and how you can get both of those things in one job, because archives are really not about the past. We're about the future. That's why we save this stuff, so people can look at it and they can go back in time. So archives, to me, are not really we use the past, but we're really about the future and for future generations who come along. So, like, working in a record store was just perfect for me because I realized, oh, my God, I have a total knack for this because you've got genres and artists and everything else. This is totally awesome. I like this. Maybe I want to be a librarian.
Lori [00:01:44]:
But then I started looking into librarianship and thought, nope, this isn't doing it right, you know? So I thought, you just can't be a historian, a history librarian. I mean, I suppose you could, but I talked to a librarian. She said to me, you know, Lori, I think what you really want to do is become an archivist. And I was like, what the is that? So she told me, and of course, she sent me to an archives. And what an archives she sent me to, which was the Mark Twain papers at the University of California at Berkeley. I was hooked. That was it.
Kim [00:02:21]:
That was all it took.
Lori [00:02:22]:
I was like, I'm doing this. This is my job. I don't care. I'm doing this.
Kim [00:02:26]:
And the rest is history.
Lori [00:02:27]:
Yep.
Kim [00:02:27]:
So I have to pick your brain on something, because I feel like I'm getting new insights and new advancements and alternative fields, and it's popping up, like, every day from HBO to hydrogen. It's like the list keeps growing, and I can't keep up. Out of breath to trying to keep up. But we've had a couple of Conversations. And we have learned that using alternative fuels isn't exactly a new innovation. So I'm wondering, is history more like repeating itself? And so I guess let's take a step back. We'll take a second. Have you heard of bulletproof coffee?
Lori [00:02:59]:
I think so, but maybe you should tell me, yes.
Kim [00:03:04]:
The idea is simple. You add butter to your coffee and it helps you sustain energy throughout the day.
Lori [00:03:09]:
Oh yeah, yeah, makes sense.
Kim [00:03:11]:
And guess what? From what you said, butter could also fuel some of the early engines.
Lori [00:03:17]:
Absolutely. Have you ever burned butter?
Kim [00:03:20]:
I have never burned butter.
Lori [00:03:21]:
Well, if you caramelize butter, you're burning butter.
Kim [00:03:25]:
Oh, that's true. And we do like those in our baked goods, don't we? Well, I would love to talk about food, but I guess we should start with a really basic question. And maybe that question is, what got Cummins into engines?
Lori [00:03:37]:
Well, our creator, Clessie Cummins, was actually a fond from his early age to build engines. He built steam engines and from there he went to Indianapolis. He started working at Marmon Motors. And so he's always, he was always in the business of some kind of engine creation. That was his thing.
Kim [00:03:59]:
And, and so when were engines invented in the Cummins world anyway?
Lori [00:04:04]:
In the Cummins world It was in 1919 when we licensed a technology from a gentleman in Chicago, Mr. HVid, H V I D, and we utilized his patents and his technologies to build our first engines.
Kim [00:04:19]:
That is always one of my favorite stories. It's like the dawn of time.
Lori [00:04:24]:
A whopping, let's see, first ones were eight horsepower, six horsepower, two and a half horsepower.
Kim [00:04:34]:
And those numbers grow exponentially today, don't they?
Lori [00:04:37]:
Oh don't they?
Kim [00:04:39]:
So I guess going back to the alternative fuels, what did those early engines run on?
Lori [00:04:45]:
Well, our primary customers were going to be pretty much your day to day farmer and some kind of like a millwright or whatever. So they had basic power needs. They would use them for threshing machines to power belt driven types of things. So you're just getting into the mechanization of farming in particular. So those kinds of things were useful for any kinds of those farm implements that were needed, from irrigation to sowing and repainting.
Kim [00:05:18]:
A variety of applications in the early days.
Kim [00:05:22]:
Yep.
Kim [00:05:22]:
But back in the day you couldn't just go to the gas station. So what were they running these engines on?
Lori [00:05:26]:
Oh my gosh. They would run them on anything. They could get anything. They would run on anything that was combustible. If it would burn, then it would really operate the engines. So it could be anything from fuel oil, crude oil, Just regular types of. Of oils. Anything that they could get their hands on, if it could burn, even butter.
Kim [00:05:50]:
Even butter.
Lori [00:05:51]:
Even, yes.
Kim [00:05:53]:
Mind is blown.
Lori [00:05:54]:
Yep.
Kim [00:05:55]:
And I think the crazy thing about that is I can't even imagine a world where I need to go fill up gas and I'm like, oh, I'll just skip the gas station. Let me get that tub of butter out or a couple sticks of butter and put it into my car, I feel.
Lori [00:06:07]:
Not exactly the best. You probably have to filter it, I would say.
Kim [00:06:12]:
But I think the thought of that is probably one of the more entertaining things, right?
Lori [00:06:16]:
It is, absolutely.
Kim [00:06:17]:
If you could burn, it would, it would run.
Lori [00:06:19]:
Yes.
Kim [00:06:20]:
And that is just so different than what we know today. So I guess now that we know. Now that we know that there were a variety of fuel sources used. When did diesel come into play? Cause now I'm confused. I thought they were always running on diesel.
Lori [00:06:34]:
Nope, nope, nope. Our first engines were really a variant on the diesel technology. The main thing that's the difference between diesel and, say, an internal combustion engine is when the spark is created and when the spark is introduced, thus producing the energy, right? To run the engine. So within our type of engine that we produce, diesel actually uses compression ignition, where you make that space so small, so high pressure so tight, that things explode. You just have no choice.
Kim [00:07:11]:
You're giving me goosebumps.
Lori [00:07:12]:
The engine's gonna do it, right?
Kim [00:07:13]:
I'm wearing leather. I shouldn't have goosebumps. Why is combustion making me so excited?
Lori [00:07:18]:
Well, but it's what we would call an internal combustion. The engine, everything has to be done by a spark. That's why you have a spark plug.
Kim [00:07:26]:
Exactly.
Lori [00:07:27]:
Right?
Lori [00:07:28]:
Exactly.
Lori [00:07:28]:
So otherwise the same ignition occurs in the same space. But what pushes the piston down and makes the work changes, that's what's different.
Kim [00:07:37]:
Heard now, how did diesel get its namesake?
Lori [00:07:41]:
Well, Rudolf Diesel was the inventor and the register of the patent that really introduced this type of compression ignition technology. He was from Augsburg. He was German. That was really Prussia at that time. A lot of political things going on in Europe at that time. The transition from predominantly monarchies to democracies. And so you see a lot of things changing there. Rudolph kind of rode that wave.
Lori [00:08:10]:
His creations, the patents that he produced, made him quite wealthy. He started living pretty modestly, but he became world famous for it.
Kim [00:08:18]:
World famous. And every day we say things like unleaded and diesel, and we had no idea that it's associated with a person.
Lori [00:08:25]:
Yes.
Kim [00:08:26]:
And that he is the namesake of the fuel that we see so commonly today.
Lori [00:08:30]:
Yes. And he was an intriguing individual, very nice looking man that I could tell. Very devoted to his wife. And I think that a lot of people kind of felt threatened. So there's a little bit of a mystery around him and his death because he mysteriously disappeared off of an ocean liner as he was headed to England. That cross the English.
Kim [00:08:55]:
No spoilers. I'm currently reading the book.
Lori [00:08:58]:
Are you?
Kim [00:08:59]:
Yes.
Lori [00:08:59]:
It's such a great book.
Kim [00:09:01]:
I'm excited to dig in more and there's just so much to uncovered.
Lori [00:09:05]:
Yes.
Kim [00:09:05]:
But I guess now I would like to talk to you a little bit more about a story that you might have mentioned to me about an old rock star in a tour bus.
Lori [00:09:15]:
Oh, yes.
Kim [00:09:17]:
You've got to enlighten everyone about this story.
Lori [00:09:19]:
This is really cool because this particular star, they utilized on their tour bus cooking grease and cooking oil from restaurants where they stopped on the road to eat. And you know, they're always. Restaurants are always having to change out. They've got different dispensaries and places that people come to pick up their oils to recycle them. This particular singer would actually go and ask them for their oil and I'm sure that they probably arranged ahead of time because they knew what their itinerary was so they would go through and get this oil. And it was just a big experiment to try to live as green, I guess, as possible. And so they recycled and used cooking oil. Used cooking oil to burn inside that bus.
Kim [00:10:11]:
Beyond fascinating. I'm like, oh, would you like a box for your leftover pancakes? No, but I would love a bucket for the cooking oil you have in the back. Exactly. Oh, my gosh.
Lori [00:10:21]:
Pretty cool.
Kim [00:10:22]:
Very cool. Lori, when we think about alternative fuels as new innovations, we know that's not the case. What is one thing you want the audience to take away?
Lori [00:10:32]:
I think to know that one. It's not a new invention that Cummins, for example, is constantly innovating. And it really is in our DNA, in our company to innovate and to try these alternative ways of looking at things. So what really was in the past kind of comes back into the present, which I think is so great. And it's been kind of an underlying theme within our entire existence, which is over a century now.
Kim [00:11:05]:
So I love knowing that we can take a little bit of history and bring something forward, add something to it, manipulate it and tinker with it. Kind of like the spirit of Klesley. We're always tinkering for what comes next in the future.
Lori [00:11:17]:
Yep. And it's so exciting.
Kim [00:11:18]:
It is. It is so exciting.
Lori [00:11:20]:
Yeah.
Kim [00:11:21]:
Well, thank you so much for taking time out of your day to share this with us.
Lori [00:11:23]:
You bet.
Kim [00:11:24]:
You know, there's a lot of things that we learned today. Butter being the fuel of all things. I did not have butter in my coffee today, but.
Lori [00:11:32]:
Certainly my fuel, I think sometimes.
Kim [00:11:34]:
But knowing that it could have been used back in the day is just again, mind blowing. I love learning all the things from you, Lori. Thank you for taking time out of your day to share this with us. Lori, we really appreciate everything that you do to help preserve a lot of the history of Cummins.
Lori [00:11:46]:
Oh, absolutely. My pleasure.
Kim [00:11:49]:
All right, so what's the big idea for this episode? Episode Alternative fuels aren't new and they've come a long way. Cummins is developing a range of alternative energy solutions, taking lessons from the past to shape what's next. If you head to the Show Notes, you'll find videos, articles and other insights on everything from battery electric to fuel cells and fuel agnostic engines. And just a friendly PSA. While engines can run on some unexpected things, your car is probably best to stick with what's at the pump. Butter and coffee, go for it. Butter in your engine, hard pass.
Show ID [00:12:32]:
Thank you for listening to Power Onward. Your support means the world to us. If you enjoyed this episode, please don't forget to subscribe, rate and review on your favorite podcast platform. If you want to dig deeper on what we covered today, check out the show notes for additional links or go to cummins.com/podcast. Until next time, Power Onward.
We're from Cummins, the company that's been innovating toward the future for more than 100 years. We're no strangers to rapid change, global shifts and economic uncertainty. We want to be your constant during the energy transition, whenever, wherever, forever. Power Onward.