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Saurer Co. 100 Years Old
Page 53
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THIS year, the Swiss Saurer enter1 prise, which was one of the earliest concerns to produce commercially internal-combustion engines for road vehicles, celebrates its centenary. The business was formed in 1853 as a small foundry at Saint-Gall. The little business prospered and in 1862 moved to Arbon.
There, small machines were first made for the textile industry, but later stationary oil engines were produced. n 1888, Saurer made the first paraffin engines to be manufactured in Switzerland, and in 1896 they were being sold as proprietary power units for road vehicles.
A few years later, the first complete Saurer vehicles made their debut. They were equipped with petrol engines, but by 1908 a compression-ignition engine, operating on gas oil, had been developed. This was the first high-speed oil engine for road vehicles and may be seen today in Munich museum.
For many years, Saurer carried on experiments with oil engines, but did not market them until 1928. , At that time, Saurer oil engines developed 7 b.h.p. per litre, but the figure today has risen to 13-14 b.h.p. per litre.