In this video Allan Schaeffer, executive director of the Engine Technology Forum, looks back in our 250th national anniversary year and celebrates the history of combustion and what it meant for society in the past and what it still provides today. Life literally wouldn’t exist the way it does today nor would our quality of life without the internal combustion engine which can operate safely and affordably on a range of both traditional and modern renewable fuels.
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Here is a transcript of the interview, condensed and tightened with assistance from AI.
Reid: All right, we’re live. Hi, I’m Keith Reid, owner-operator of Wreck to Retail, which provides content that fuels retailers, marketers and associated areas of interest. Today I have Allen Schaeffer. Allen is the Executive Director of the Engine Technology Forum. I’ve worked with Allen numerous times over the years and covered a lot of ETF’s content. Allen, tell us a little bit about the organization and what you do.
Schaeffer: Hi, Reid. Thanks for having us. The Engine Technology Forum is a group of manufacturers, suppliers, fuel producers and affiliated associations centered around one idea: the internal combustion engine is extremely important to the world we have today and it will continue to be important to the world we have tomorrow.
We look at the relationship between fuels, engines and technology. We’re a holistic educational organization covering everything from light duty vehicles and pickup trucks to diesel, power generation, data centers and everything in between. We look at all kinds of engines — the only exception is aircraft engines. Everything on the ground is within our scope.
Reid: Excellent. I’m a big fan of “all of the above,” but within that, I’m certainly a huge proponent of combustion. I wanted to have you on today to talk about your initiative, Engines Power America at 250, linked to our recent Fourth of July anniversary.
At first, I wondered if it was stretching things to say “engines at 250,” but I had forgotten that we began exploring combustion in the 1700s. By the end of the 1800s, diesel and gasoline engine technology were already established. The Wright brothers’ first aircraft in 1903 was powered by a gasoline engine.
As editor of NPN, I had access to archives dating back to 1909. The magazine then still focused primarily on kerosene and even listed whale oil as a product. It was the independent voice against Rockefeller and small refiners. Then came the Model T, World War I — the first mechanized war — and by the 1920s the magazine was almost entirely about motor fuels.
Allen, give me your perspective on the history of combustion, the role it has played in society and why you decided to celebrate it this way.
Schaeffer: It’s a great setup, Reid. You’re a great student of history and there’s a tremendous amount of it behind this technology and its fuels. Going back 250 years, it’s impressive to see all the inventions and innovations — the Otto cycle engine, the diesel engine — and even more impressive to see what those engines enabled. That’s what we chose to focus on with our campaign: raising awareness of what engines have contributed over the last 250 years and what they will contribute in the next 250.
We broke it down into several areas. The first is personal mobility. Even back in the 1920s, the Model T gave people newfound ability to travel and that freedom sparked much larger societal changes. Suburbanization followed, as people could move outside cities. Infrastructure grew to support suburbs, most notably our interstate highway system — a crown jewel that enabled people, goods and services to move across the country.
You can’t think about American history without considering the role engines played in industrialization and economic growth. The rise of the automobile and truck industries created huge demand for oil, steel and rubber, fueling industrial expansion.
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