Draft:Voltol

• Comment: This appears to be a translation from de.wiki [1], in which case that article must be attributed as the source, per WP:HOWTRANS.
  You must also correctly translate all the templates etc., as some of these are still in German, and don't therefore function correctly here on en.wiki. DoubleGrazing (talk) 11:05, 15 November 2024 (UTC)

• Comment: The style of referencing is quite confusing, please see WP:REFB for advice.
  Much of the content is unreferenced.
  All but one of the citations are to a single source (Schulze).
  Ref #2 doesn't seem to work. DoubleGrazing (talk) 10:58, 15 November 2024 (UTC)

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Voltol is an oil mixture of rapeseed and mineral oil with reduced viscosity and lower pour point. The product is produced by electrical cracking with an electric field below alternating voltage. It is used as lubricating oil mainly for aircraft and carengines and as hydraulic oil. It is sold in Germany and English-speaking countries under the trade name Voltol-Gleitöl and in Belgium as Elektrion lubricating oil.

Chemical basics

Oils consist of long-chain, non-electrically charged hydrocarbon chains. Due to the Van der Waals forces, interactions occur between the chains, which make the chains stick to one another. The oils become viscous at low temperatures, solidify and become wax, and lose the ability to reach where they are supposed to reduce friction. At higher temperatures, the molecules begin to vibrate, the weak van der Waals bridges are broken, the hydrocarbon chains lose their fixation and the oil becomes more liquid again. With alternating current, the van der Waals bridges can be permanently disrupted so that the pour point only occurs at lower temperatures and the viscosity is reduced. The tendency of the hydrocarbon chains to stick can also be reduced by adding rapeseed oil. Rapeseed oil consists of long-chain carboxylic acids and carboxylic acid esters. The carboxy groupsn are bulky and therefore prevent the ordering of the hydrocarbon molecules. The two factors: the use of alternating electrical current and the addition of vegetable oils can cause the effect of viscosity stabilization over a large temperature range.

Manufacturing

Until 1945, Voltol was produced in double-walled glass cylinders. Copper foils were inserted between the glass walls. High voltage with a frequency of 500 Hz from a transformer was applied to the inner film, the outer film was at reference potential and served as a return conductor. This created a voltage field and led to a glow discharge of the electrical current. The oil to be treated was contained in the glass cylinders. First the rapeseed oil was exposed to the alternating current, then the mineral oil was gradually added. The cylinders were rotated so that the oil was evenly exposed to the stress field. The power was supplied via sliding contacts. The energy use is stated differently: The Enemy Oil Committee estimated 0.5 kWh/kg voltol, but the annual reports at the time indicate two to three kWh/kg.

Blends

The following mixtures were used:

• Main product Endvoltol, consisting of ⅓ rapeseed oil and ⅔ mineral oil in proportions by weight, without any other additives.
• Aero Shell Mid Oil: This mid oil had a high final voltol content.
• Voltolized oil: 95% mineral oil, 5% final voltol, in parts by weight.
• Mixture of ¼ rapeseed oil and ¾ mineral oil in proportions by weight: this oil was mixed with rosin oils in France.

Changes in lubricating properties when using Voltol

According to the Enemy Oil Committee, the following improvements in lubricating properties have been observed in normal engines:

• The oil solidifies at lower temperatures and becomes liquid at lower temperatures than conventional lubricating oil;
• As the temperature increases, the oils become thinner more quickly;
• lubricity is improved;
• The engines become cleaner because voltolized oil dissolves the oil sludge better.

For aircraft engines, the available data showed that the proportion of Voltol in the lubricating oil should not be more than 5% by weight. A higher proportion of vegetable oil would burn in the prevailing high temperatures and leave too many residues.

Company History

In 1907 Alexandre de Hemptinne (born April 17, 1866 in Ghent; † December 7, 1955 there) founded the Elektrion factory in Wondelgem, since 1977 Gent-Wondelgem, the [[fish oil] ] processed. De Hemptinne was a chemist, worked for two years at the University of Leipzig under Wilhelm Ostwald and was appointed there in 1893 on the basis of a dissertation on the electrical conductivity of the flame and the Gase received his doctorate. Since 1902 he had worked as a university lecturer at the Catholic University of Leuven and while he was away for academic reasons, his young director Léopold De Cavel ran the company from 1909. In 1911, de Hemptinne began producing a mineral oil for the lubrication of diesel engines for the first time, which lubricated better than the previously used, but chemically very stable, fish oil. He patented the process.

World War I

Fortführung der Produktion in Gent

During World War I, de Hemptinne was pressured by the German occupying forces to make Elektrion oil production available to their pre-war German distributor Ölwerken Stern-Sonneborn AG, with the threat of being deported to Germany. De Hemptinne and the managing director Léopold De Cavel, as stated in the first minutes of the board of ELEKTRION SA after the First World War (May 13, 1919), refused. Unlike the historian Henri Pirenne, the threat was not carried out, but de Hemptinne's factory was only able to deliver small quantities due to its own sabotage. Therefore it was copied in Potschappel, which later became Freital-Potschappel in 1921. A device that was difficult to transport was left in Antwerp.

The German chemist Walther Nernst, who completed his habilitation under Wilhelm Ostwald in 1889, and the physicist Josef Stern were commissioned to restart the factory in Freital-Potschappel.The brothers Josef and Leopold Stern and their brother-in-law Jacques Sonneborn, who were involved as founders of the Hamburg company Ölwerken Stern-Sonneborn AG, founded Elektrion Öl-GmbH in Hamburg. In 1917, Elektrion Öl GmbH submitted a building application to build a factory hall in Birkigt, since 1923 Freital-Birkigt, and built it from 1919 to 1921.

The Elektrion factory in Ghent-Wondelgem was liquidated after the end of the war. In 1919, Elektrion's former managing directors, Léopold de Cavel (born 1885), and its accountant, Michel Roegiers Sr. (born 1896), resumed production in agreement with De Hemptinne, under the partnership Société des Huiles De Cavel & Roegiers in Ghent, with Roegiers only becoming a full partner in 1929. During this time, de Hemptinne von Rhenania achieved that the name Elektrion was replaced by Voltol in Germany. The Elektrion factory with its name was used worldwide, outside of Germany.

Between the two World Wars

Produktionshalle 1921–1946

From January 23, 1922, the company no longer used the product and company name Elektrion, but operated the company under the name Deutsche Voltolwerke-GmbH. In 1924, the Voltolwerke returned the reactors from Wondelgem, and de Cavel and Roegiers were able to rebuild Elektrion oil production in Ghent at the new site at Nieuwewandeling 68. Voltol was prominently used in the five twelve-cylinder engines of the airship LZ 126, which Hugo Eckener personally transferred from Friedrichshafen to Lakehurst on October 12, 1926.< ref>Karl Söhnel: The Valley of Work in Rudolf Schumann (Ed.): Communications from Landesverein Sächsischer Heimatschutz, Dresden 1927, p. 200.</ref> In 1925, the Mineralölwerke Rhenania AG took over the Ölwerke Stern–Sonneborn AG and ran it under the name Rhenania-Ossag Mineralölwerke AG further. From August 19, 1926, Deutsche Voltolwerke GmbH was merged into Rhenania-Ossag Mineralölwerke AG and continued to operate as an independent department under the name Werk Freital, Voltolwerke Department. Voltol was not delivered to Belgium.

World War II

In 1939, Rhenania-Ossag was placed under the control of the Central Office for Mineral Oil as part of the war economy. The following quantities of final voltol were produced during the Second World War: 1993 t, 1598 t, 1621 t and 985 t (1939 to 1942). The main buyer was the Luftwaffe.

Further developments

A major advantage of using electrically treated rapeseed oil was that it reduced the appearance of carbon in the cylinders. The disadvantage was that the piston rings began to stick together. Between August 1942 and March 1943, experiments were carried out in the Royal Dutch Shell laboratory in Amsterdam to determine the extent to which the amount and type of insoluble oil components contributed to the sticking of the piston rings. Current was used with a frequency of 7500 Hz instead of the 500 Hz common in Freital. The oil sludge that appeared in the laboratory test was viscous and stringy; the Freital oil sludge was rubbery. Carl Zerbe (1894–1985), who was in charge of the Royal Dutch Shell laboratories during the Second World War as the former head of research at Rhenania-Ossag Mineralölwerke AG, blamed the Freital oil sludge for the sticking of the piston rings. Zerbe wanted to transfer the knowledge gained in the laboratory to the production process in Freital; in particular, he wanted to expose rapeseed oil and mineral oil to alternating current at the same time. However, Zerbe never received oil produced in this way. Further attempts were planned, but no longer took place.

Die Bombardierung von Freital-Birkigt am 24. August 1944

The operational order for the 486th and 487th Bombing Groups of the 3rd Bombardment Division of the 8th Air Force - "Mighty Eight" - pointed out the importance of the target: Although the Voltol plant was only the seventeenth of 26 targets of the 8th Air Force, it is the only factory in Germany that refines high-quality aircraft lubricants and has never been attacked.

On August 24, 1944, the 3rd Bombardment Division flew to three targets: Kiel, Freital and Brüx (today: Most/Czech Republic). The 486th Bombing Group flew from Sudbury, the 487th Bombing Group from Levenham. Both bomber groups united in Suffolk on the east coast and flew via Helgoland, Cuxhaven and Magdeburg to Cottbus. There they turned back and flew westwards towards Dresden. They narrowly avoided the anti-aircraft guns stationed there and released 500 explosive bombs over Dresden-Mockritz between 12:59 p.m. and 1:05 p.m. The bombing was carried out with great precision. 47% of the explosive bombs fell within a radius of 150 m from the target center.

The anti-aircraft defense, which consisted of too few guns, only fired weakly and inaccurately.

Bombardierte Maschinenfabrik Bühler

However, it was not the alleged Voltol factories that were hit, but rather the Bühler machine factory, which was listed as the target center, and the Anton Schega furniture factory, which were completely destroyed. The Otto Hänsel machine factory, located 350 m east of the Voltol factory and which manufactured candy wrapping machines, drop rolling machines and the wax paper required for wrapping, was badly hit, but not completely destroyed. At the Bühler machine factory there were 51 dead and 40 injured and at the Hänsel machine factory there were 82 dead and one seriously injured. There were a total of 244 fatalities. The Voltolwerk escaped with little damage and without a direct hit.

Two and a half hours after the attack, the 7th Photographic Reconnaissance Group took an aerial photo at a scale of 1:10,200 showing the burning Bühler machine factory and the intact Voltolwerk. At 5:00 p.m. the English radio reported that the Freital Shell operation had been destroyed. In the evaluation report of the 3rd Bombardment Division from August 25, 1944, the detonations of the “oil refinery” were assigned as follows: Boiler house: possibly a direct hit; Main production building: one possible hit, one close hit; Administration: one direct and one close hit. On September 4, 1944, the Joint Oil Targets Committee summarized the result: “Of the only known factories in German Europe that use this process (meaning that Voltol or Electrion process) is a process developed in Freital near Dresden by the U.S. 8th Air Force was recently severely damaged. The other one in Ghent is no longer in German hands.” There was no third Voltolwerk, suspected to be in Hamburg.

Continuation

Although the factory remained intact, Voltol was no longer produced in Freital after the end of the war. VEB Chemische Works Bussard produced, among other things, the ski wax “Drix” in the factory hall. The hall is empty and is partly used as a workshop. The Elektrion works resumed operations in Ghent in 1946. In 1958 they built a new office and laboratory building. They have become the largest independent lubricating oil manufacturer in Belgium and produce Elektrion lubricating oil in many qualities. Voltol is offered as Shell Voltol lubricating oil.

Literature

• Götz Bergander: Dresden im Luftkrieg, Sonderausgabe, Würzburg 1998.
• Katrin Schulze: GQ 1612. Was die Alliierten am 24. August 1944 nach Freital-Birkigt führte. Schulze, Freital 2011.
• Karl Söhnel: Das Tal der Arbeit in Rudolf Schumann (Hrsg.): Mitteilungen des Landesvereins Sächsischer Heimatschutz, Dresden 1927.

References

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Categories:

• Lubricants
• Ehemaliges Unternehmen (Freital)