Quote Originally Posted by drg84
Smitteys are for sale again in summit. Maybe I ought to put some on the Rora . And correct me if im wrong, but diddnt the first blowers get used on prop airplanes for higher altitudes? and then the bus, then the car? Soemone please correct me on this one.
I'm pretty sure the first superchargers were fitted to automobiles, then later to aircraft. The first ones were, I believe, a centrifugal type of compressor. The question wasn't about superchargers though, it asked about blowers. When we think about blowers, we usually think of the Roots design with two counter-rotating rotors with either two or three lobes on each rotor. The correct answer is that General Motors Corporation began using the design on buses in the late 30's to blow down the two-stroke diesels on the exhaust stroke.

Interestingly, the design originated around 1860 and was concocted by two brothers, Philander and Francis Roots. Although there are many stories about the original intent of the blower, I like the one that says it was originally intended to blow fresh air down mineshafts so the miners could breathe and not suffocate. It was never intended to compress air, only to move air from one place to another.