The thirteenth Pump Users Symposium has been dedicated to the memory of Igor J. Karassik, who died at his home in Maplewood, New Jersey, on July 2, 1995. This is a profound statement of memory, and many might well ask what it was that this man did that was so deserving? The answer to that is both enlightening and challenging.

Before discussing Igor Karassik and what he did, it’s important to recognize that he endorsed the International Pump Users Symposium wholeheartedly, and participated in it frequently and with great enthusiasm, as was his way. He did this because its objective, to help pump users better understand pumps, followed a fundamental premise of his participation in the pump industry. Early in his career, Karassik determined that a manufacturer of machinery will have the greatest chance of success when the company’s objective is to help its customers succeed in their endeavors. This philosophy was evident in Karassik’ s frequent observation that “Operators deserve to sleep nights too!”

To better understand Igor Karassik and his achievements, it’s necessary to recount some of his background. The circumstances of his childhood and adolescence (born in Russia; fled the revolution; a classical education in three languages), developed a character possessed of compassion for his fellow man, catholic tastes, great curiosity, and a generous sense of humor. Though English was not his native tongue, Karassik developed a masterly command of the language, allowing him to speak or write with ease on a wide range of subjects to just about any audience.

In keeping with most who achieve great prominence in their chosen endeavor, Igor Karassik’s life and work were largely one and the same.

Karassik contributed to the pump industry with an elegant meld of technical development, commercial reality, and education. His professional career started with Worthington in l936. Fortunate to have excellent mentors, he quickly acquired the elements of the “art” as it was, then proceeded to improve it. Notable among the technical developments he was associated with are:

• In conjunction with George F. Wislicenus and R.M. Watson in 1937, the development of suction specific speed, the dimensionless relationship between flow, rotative speed, and the NPSH required. This relationship was sought in order to overcome the limitation of the Thoma-Moody constant, which related head to NPSH required.

• Working with Pacific Gas & Electric and Bechtel, starting in 1946 and publishing in 1953, the means of preventing catastrophic boiler feed pump failures during sudden load reductions in open-cycle steam power plants. Widely attributed to poorly designed antiflash baffling, the cause of these failures turned out to be an apparent paradox: the volume of the suction piping had to be less than a certain fraction of the deaerator storage volume to ensure there was no flashing at the boiler feed pump.

• With Public Service Electric & Gas as an ally, the installation in 1953 of a prototype 9,000 rpm boiler feed pump. Concerned that one consequence of increasing operating pressures of steam power plants was declining reliability of the 3,600 rpm boiler feed pumps then in use, a result of more stages to develop the required head, hence more flexible rotors, Karassik began promoting the concept of the high speed boiler feed pump. Running at 2.5 times the then maximum speed to develop 1,500 ft (550 m) head per stage, thereby lower the number of stages, the high speed boiler feed pump was controversial within the utility industry. Following a redesign of its inner casing to correct internal leakage, the prototype pump gave a good account of itself. For the following seven years, Karassik and his company had the advantage of being the only manufacturer of high speed boiler feed pumps. It was this technology that in 1956 allowed the design of first pump to develop the head required for a 3,500 psig (240 bar) supercritical boiler in a single casing, thereby avoiding the need for split pumping (two pumps in series), a complex and frequently troublesome arrangement.

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