Diesels don't require electricity to run. As well turbine engines don't require electricity either. Sure there be a few issues getting both started, but any backyard mechanic should be able to figure that out. The writers also ask me to suspend my disbelief that machinery that has not run in years suddenly will run perfectly when the pendents show up. Really?
Otherwise the premise is entertaining enough to keep me watching.
Diesels were discussed in an old thread on this board. That thread has been
deleted (because IMDb automatically deletes old inactive threads eventually.)
IIRC, in that old thread, someone noted that diesel engines
use "glow plugs", which do involve electricity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glow_plug
Later (after the old thread was deleted), I searched Google Books and found the
following note in book titled "Auto Repair for Dummies" (2011) by Deanna Sclar:
"... Better fuel management techniques and higher injection pressures now create enough heat to touch off the fuel without glow plugs, but the plugs are still in there for emissions control ...."
(Emphasis added.)
I figured it'd been discussed already. Wish I'd seen it then. However diesels don't require glow plugs. The electrical benefit of the glow plug is just to make starting easier. My diesel engine on my boat does not have one at all and starts fine.
Steam engines are another item we are expected to forget about too I guess. Although the militia did revive an old locomotive. But why didn't any halfwit figure out how to make their own?
As I said, I'm interested enough in the basic story. It just bothers me the writers ignore obvious flaws in the stories premise.
The Georgia republic used steam power regularly. Seems some of the republics were more advanced, less militaristic.
shareI don't know about boats, but modern diesel automotive engines need... a computer that controls the thing. No electricity == no run.
Are boat engines really not computer-controlled these days?
What does these days have to do with anything. In a post apocalyptic world they'd be going back to whatever worked. Steam was around long before computers
shareHow many totally mechanical Diesel engines in working condition are there now with flywheel hand crank starters? I'd wager very few have ever been produced due to the high compression of Diesel engines and the advent of electric starters. Maybe some kind of agricultural or industrial model, low displacement and low power.
I'm sure something could be done to adapt a conventional engine, but it's a big job. Starter, fuel pump, engine controls. A boat might be the most realistic transport that could be gotten running this way and may be the place where you'd find a simplistic, pre-electronics engine management engine to work with.
I'd say they are a decade away from making a usable diesel land vehicle. Maybe if one of the regional governments were to make building one their Manhattan project they'd get it done. They have to basically reinvent 19th century metalwork and tooling to make the parts to get the engines converted and usable.
With the exception of almost instant long range communications, almost every single way a creating power can be accomplished without the use of electricity. It may not be as efficient, but still better than stoop labor. There is even a way to run an IC engine without the use of spark plugs.
shareIMO, the writer had the idea "what would the world be like if one day you woke up and there was no electricity in the world?".
But instead of actually following that story-line, they made up a fantasy world to fit their vision and ignored history and common sense.
Sense8 (2015): "If you don't mind, I prefer to think you are a hallucination."
But instead of actually following that story-line, they made up a fantasy world to fit their vision and ignored history and common sense.
IMO, the writer had the idea "what would the world be like if one day you woke up and there was no electricity in the world?".
The real question is would this gas still be good after x amount of years? I'm no checmical engineer, but I doubt modern engines could operate on the gasoline produced from primitive forms of crude oil refinement; Especially vehicles like helicopters.
Accessible gas would have been exposed to oxygen. So I'm pretty sure all the gas in the world would be unusable after 2 years tops. And at that point it would ruin engines. Diesel would oxidize even quicker.
That's why diesel engines would still be viable, especially older engines that are purely mechanical. Diesel fuel is more stable, and diesel engines can run on fuel with an array of different characteristics, some people run their engines with filtered used motor oil. Diesels can even be ran on wood gas.
shareMr. Nigel-Murray, is that you? You must be a blast at parties. Rme
This will be the high point of my day; it's all downhill from here.