| McDonald Type CD 4 1/2 hp – 6″stroke no. 3655 The A.H. McDonald Imperial Super Diesel is one of the portable steam engines created by a certain Alfred Henry McDonald–hence the name. His father was a baker and wanted Alfred to become his baking apprentice. However, his real calling was in science and engineering, so he worked with a scientific instrument maker in Melbourne named Henri Galopin. After his four-year work with the esteemed Henri, he worked for an electrical engineering company. All these became the foundation of A.H. McDonald & Company, and his job experiences helped him create generator sets and petrol engines. But it was in 1918 when Alfred first created the so-called “Super Diesel,” a horizontal engine popularly used for road rollers and other stationary machines. Later on, his company imported tractors from the United States and Sweden to create the A.H. McDonald Imperial tractors powered by the iconic Imperial Super Diesel engines. Unlike other companies, Alfred Henry McDonald’s engineering group started late in the game, during an age when technology was shifting towards electrical innovations. But A.H. McDonald & Co. managed to penetrate a market with its tractors and engines through various innovations and engineering wonders. This made the Imperial Super Diesel an amazing engineering creation and Alfred Henry McDonald a pioneer in his field. |