US Auto Czar

Radiators and Their Fascinating History

Radiators and their fascinating history shows how truly ingenious some systems for cooling of an internal combustion engine can be and also how durable the basic design -- which goes back to the 1800s --is even to this day. Most internal combustion engines require a radiator, including those for automobiles, train engines and motorcycles. In fact, some piston driven airplane engines also need them.

A radiator is basically a way to cool down an internal combustion engine in an efficient and self-contained manner. It allows coolant circulates through engine to be sent from the radiator, into the engine and then back to the radiator. Just about any engine that makes use of some sort of fossil fuel incorporates a radiator in one form or another within its design.

After the coolant has been sent back to the radiator, it is cooled down by the air that is passed through the radiator core. Usually air rushing through the radiator from the forward movement of the automobile along with air pushed through the radiator from a spinning fan located at the front of the engine provides all of the cooling that is necessary to keep the engine running well.

As far as who came up with the design for the radiator first, it is generally accepted that a German engineer by the name of Karl Benz -- of the Mercedes-Benz Empire -- brought his radiator to the market first. He happened to beat out two other German engineers by the name of Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in getting his design to the patent office, though all three designs were similar.

Karl Benz is widely recognized as an automotive genius. He was so good at coming up with ways to improve the internal combustion engine that he is usually accepted as the inventor of it. He is also credited with being the first person to design and then manufacture the gasoline powered automobile. His engine/radiator unit was patented way back in 1879.

This basic design has remained unchanged for all those years, for the most part. From 1879 until the early 1970s, radiators were generally constructed of copper and brass, especially within their cores. The basic genius behind the design is a testament to its longevity. By the 1990s, aluminum had made a number of inroads into radiator manufacture, though.

This push towards aluminum first occurred in the early 1970s when auto makers began to look about for ways to lighten up their vehicles. The oil price shocks of that era meant that cars had to become more fuel efficient if they were to succeed. Lighter cars meant that less fuel would be burned, in other words. Aluminum was lighter than traditional brass and copper, though most aftermarket radiators are made of those two metals.

Because copper and brass are so good at what they do -- which in a radiator is to dissipate heat and stand up to all of the abuse dished out by an engine -- it doesn't seem as if they will be going away anytime soon. Innovations and improvements in copper and brass manufacture this last decade has delivered a radiator that is lighter and more durable than aluminum units of the same size, too.