Igor J.

Karassik
(1911-1995)
&or J. Karassik died July 2, 1995,
at his borne in Maplewood,
New
Jersey. This tribute to one of the
greatest pump engineers bas been
prepared
by his friend and colleac
gue J. T. McGuire.

whose position
the

adage:

If you want

discussion,

just

controversial
that

new

retorted
emigres

States who had a profound

industry,
pump

Igor Karassik

to the United

effect on the pump

was

initiated

industry when he joined

into

Worthington

1936. During his career he was responsible

number

of significant

centrifugal

pump

advances

design.

the
in

for a

in the art of

As notable

as these

at odds with the

in practising

stimulate

a firm
To those

approaches

created

progress

a lively

statement
who

on a

protested

problems,

If you dont want problems,

problems

is made

he

then dont

by solving

the

caused by progress!.

The concept
pattern

make

to

subject.

do anything;
One of the six Russians

was frequently

herd. In the industry, he delighted

of suction

early. Developed

Wislicenus

and

specific
jointly

R.M.

speed set the

with George F.

Watson

in

1937,

objective was to arrive at a relationship

the

between

required NPSH and specific speed, thereby giving

plant designers

a simple

means

of determining

were, a listing of them alone would not do justice

how much NPSH was necessary for a pump of a

to the mans

given ilow and speed. The new concept

contribution

to the industry.

His

career is a case, to borrow from one of his papers,

treated

of the whole

ment, who took the position

being

greater

than

the sum

of

the parts.

Moody sigma constant

Igor Karassik was not a gray man. As those

who knew him appreciate,
of many colours
engineer,
human

lucidity

him

an imaginative

on a range of subjects

behaviour,

made

he was instead a man

or complexions,

knowledgeable

well beyond the technical,

of

whose understanding

sense

of

humour,

exceptional

lifes

realities

in

can

be

The colourful

helping its customers

nights

design

too!.

applied

Karassiks

can only prosper by

achieve their objectives;

It was also

and application,

teaching

people

evident

aspects

by

in the

of pump

and in his devotion

about

pumps

better apply and use them.

Innovation
frequently put

so they
Karassik

to

could
in the

position of advocating ideas that were controversial. A mark of the mans character is that he
didnt shy away from these differences of opinion.
Within Worthington,
he recognized
that a
corporation

would

0 1995, Elsevier Science

0262 1762/95/$7.00

usually

Ltd

the

required

next

tolerate

one

man

was

in

hurdle,

an open mind. When Karassik started

the help of Pacific

permeated

to various

load reductions

plants,

the

customers. The philosophy was evident in his

frequent observation that operators deserve to
innovation

sudden

power

cycle

by installing

being what we might term today an ally of its

sleep

during

open

of deaerator

Russian

boiler

feed failures

one

Central to that philosophy

was the idea that a business

the cause of catastrophic

overcome

in Turkey, France and

character

philosophy.

Determining

prematurely

the United States, in three languages.

business

the concepts

wisdom

awakened
from

delayed

into this phenomenon

These

flight

and educated

which

general use for several years.

the conventional

at least in part, to his being born of

to

that the Thoma-

traits

attributed,

aristocracy,

design,

was not
establish-

was still quite adequate

his investigation

and

the Russian

industry.

and

for plant

industry

in his chosen

profession

revolution,

kindly by the pump

Corporation,

in 1946,

was that the problem

design,

which

anti-flash

Gas & Electric

a conclusive

could

baffhng.

be

With

and Bechtel

paper was published

in 1953 showing that the key to the problem was

the relative volumes of the deaerator storage
space and the suction piping, and presenting a
simple equation with which plant designers
could avoid this problem.
As the operating steam pressure of central
station power plants rose, so did the number of
stages necessary in 3600 RPM boiler feed pumps
to develop the required total head. Concern over
the reliability of these pumps with their increasingly slender rotors caused Karassik to promote
the concept of the high speed boiler feed pump.
Intended to increase the head per stage by
running at speeds 2.5 times higher than were
then normal, thereby shorten and stiffen the
pumps rotor, hence increase its reliability, the
high speed boiler feed pump was extremely
controversial within the utility industry. A prototype 9000 RPM pump was built in 1953 against an
order from Public Service Electric & Gas, and after
a redesign of its inner casing to correct internal
leakage, gave a good account of itself. it took
seven more years for high speed pumps to become
generally accepted. During this time, Karassik and
his company had the advantage of being the only
manufacturer of boiler feed pumps developing
1500 ft (550 m) per stage; of being the ones
solving the problems caused by progress. It was
this technology that in 1956 allowed the first
pump to develop the head required for a
3500 psig (240 bar) supercritical boiler in a
single casing, thereby avoiding the need for split
pumping (2 pumps in series), a complex and
frequently troublesome arrangement.
Controversy arose again as high energy
pumps began to develop serious operating problems when operated at capacities much below
design. In 1972, Fraser, Karassik and Bush
published a qualitative paper arguing that the
problems of noise, vibration, suction pressure
pulsations, premature impeller erosion, and even
impeller shroud fracture, were all attributable
to recirculation within the impeller, and could
be overcome with the appropriate impeller design. Notwithstanding that George F. Wislicenus
had stated in 1947 that predicting off-design
behaviour would be the focus of hydraulic
design development in the future, many in the
industry dismissed the claim as little more than
an advertising ploy. Since that first paper,
practical examples, findings by plant owners,
and developments in hydraulic design techniques have vindicated the position taken by
Karassik and his colleagues.
Karassik dealt with more than boiler feed
pumps. During his tenure in the 1970s as
Manager of Worthingtons Pioneer Products
group, he oversaw the development of many
novel machines, among them a close-coupled,

WORLD PUMPS OCTOBER 1995

steam turbine driven compressor running at

41 750 RPM on water lubricated bearings; a
water turbine driven pump with the turbine
runner an integral part of the impeller; a
catamaran, the Mop Cat, for recovering oil
spills from waterways, and an injection moulded
plastic pump designed for mass production.
Starting more than 20 years ago, he was a
strong advocate of variable frequency drive to
allow more appropriate pump design speeds,
and variation of the pumps speed to match the
actual service conditions. Most recently, though
drawing on a concept expressed 30 years ago, he
was promoting the concept of hermetically
sealed, integral motor pumps, with magnetic
bearings and variable frequency speed control.
This concept is now in the prototype stage, with
various examples having been built and put into
field trial, while other, more novel designs are
being developed.
The innovations Igor Karassik promoted in
the pump industry were not limited to technical.
In keeping with the central idea of his business
philosophy, he established with two of his major
customers, Southern Western Public Service and
Kaiser Engineers and Constructors, what would
now be termed alliances. The essential aspect of
those informal agreements was direct assistance
with plant design to develop the optimum
pumping arrangement (including new pump
designs in some cases), with the final price
being determined from a previously agreed
listing or by negotiation for new designs. South
Western Public Service has consistently achieved
high availability and low operating costs with the
units built using this arrangement, to the extent
of winning on two occasions a national award for
the lowest cost per kWhr.
Toward the end of his life, Igor Karassik
reflected that his lifes work could perhaps best
be summarized as that of a teacher. Recognizing
that no philosophy or innovation will succeed
unless its virtues are adequately communicated,
the reflection is accurate. Over his lifetime, Igor
Karassik taught the basics of the pump industry
and argued for his philosophy and innovations in
more than 1100 articles and papers, four books,
and countless lectures, talks and seminars. And
in all this, the emphasis was on rendering the
incomprehensible comprehensible rather than
trying to impress all with his learnedness.
Igor Karassik was unique, as is every human
being, and therefore will not be replaced by
another like him. Instead, with insight, others
will adopt elements of his philosophy and
practices, then apply them to the challenges
facing the industry today. If that happens, it will
be the tribute Igor envisioned to his life in the
pump industry.
H