Diesel giant Cummins history-1

business establishment

On February 3, 1919, Cummins Engine Company was formally established. Mr. William Glanton Irwin, a successful banker and investor in Columbus, Indiana, USA, provided the start-up capital. The company's namesake founder, Clessie Lyle Cummins, was a self-taught mechanical inventor. Clessie developed a fascination with mechanics, especially engines, at an early age. In 1908, Mr. Erwin hired him as a driver and car maintenance, and then helped him establish his own car repair shop. During World War I, Mr. Clessy operated a machine shop, and thanks to cooperation with the Federal Government, Mr. Clessy's business grew rapidly.

In the 1890s, Rudolf Diesel invented an engine technology with much better fuel economy and durability than ordinary engines. Clessy was very interested in it and planned to put it into mass production .

tough start-up stage

In 1919, Cummins produced the first 6-horsepower, 4-cylinder Hvid-type engine for stationary power. With the help of Nudsen, a former Hvid engine engineer, Clessy began to design the engine himself. Soon, he was inventing an unprecedented single-disc fuel system. He knew very well that to develop a fuel engine not only required a lot of money, but the possibility of success was very small.

As expected, the company quickly ran into a financial deficit. Cummins has made some improvements to this engine, but it still has many flaws. The farmers took the machines home and returned them before the refund period promised by the retailer. Two months later, the Great Depression that swept across the United States led to a sharp recession in the economy, and Cummins' main business - the marine engine market began to shrink due to it.

Pioneering the Diesel Engine Car

However, it was Clessie's unique creativity that brought the company back from the brink of bankruptcy. He put a diesel engine in an old Packard limousine. On Christmas Day in 1929, he drove the first diesel car in the United States and took Mr. Erwin for a ride, trying to persuade Erwin to continue investing with the good performance of the diesel car. This bet-like approach saved Cummins. With Mr. Irwin's new capital infusion, Clessie is determined to promote the new concept of a diesel-engined car. He and Disenberg set the speed record for a diesel-engined car at Dayton Beach. In 1931, the Cummins team once again set a new endurance record by driving 13,535 miles at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The fuel economy and durability of these prototypes won some truckers and fleet managers, who began retrofitting Cummins engines to their vehicles.