I'll see if I can dig up the quote from the book, and maybe that will explain better what I'm getting at. Something to the effect that the honing process was thought to be rather critical to holding oil. That said, these engines were manufactured over many years, and ideas came and went, and techniques changed as suited the conditions of the market, the patent situation and the desires of whoever it was that was making the strategic decisions for the company.
In the 1950s it sounds like increased competition from smaller lighter weight more modern engines was forcing Durslely to adopt a number of cost-saving strategies, like retooling the patterns for the head and cylinder to leave the head studs outside the casting to save on raw materials. They also fitted an alloy piston to the 8/1 and replaced the CS valve with the now-familiar threaded plug. Given the fact that chrome-lined cylinders, and especially the "Listard" treatment are not more universally used today, I wonder if maybe some of its appeal to the company might have had more to do with distinguishing their product from that of their competitors, rather than actually conferring a benefit in longevity. The CS valve, too, wasn't adopted by the rest of the industry after the patents ran their course. So was it really more of a marketing gimmick than a necessary part of the design? It seems that other companies were able to make ag. diesels start in the cold without the CS valve.
Though I haven't verified this, I expect that chrome plated cylinders were probably in existence before Lister began using them. So how to protect the company's use of chrome? With a patent. So how do you patent something that is already in common use? By innovation. Someone might have noticed the effect of the brief reverse current on the surface of the chrome. To one set of eyes, a crazed chrome finish might look like a bad part. An optimist, though, might say something like, "The cracks will hold more oil." And the patent attorney walking by the two might suddenly shout, "Bingo!"
I don't think there's any magic in the design, or any of the technologies used in these wonderful old engines. Decisions were probably made for many reasons that might or might not make any sense to us who are so far removed from the context in which they were made.
For what it's worth.
Quinn