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Prewar
diesels didn't get much better than the classic Atlas-Imperial.
It owed its development to an era shortly before World War
I when the Atlas Gas Engine Company and the Imperial Gas Engine
Company, both of Oakland, California, saw the writing on the
wall. The increasing practicality of the diesel engine and
the escalating price of gasoline would spell the end for the
sometimes huge gasoline engines being turned out by both companies.
Atlas engineers developed fuel injection that didn't rely
on a cumbersome compressed air system. That was the basis
for one of the most successful of all early diesels. Turning
up to just 300 rpm, the big, cast-iron Atlas would last almost
indefinitely and powered a whole generation of working craft.
Read
more about Atlas-Imperial in Engines Afloat, From Early
Days to D-Day. Classic Favorite
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