Most people know the diesel engine and diesel generator set. But few people hear of Rudolf diesel (1858-1913).
Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel, a German inventor who was born in France, invented and patented a new kind of internal combustion engine in Augsburg, Germany.
It was given the name “Diesel engine” because he invented it.
It ran under its own power for the first time in Augsburg, Germany on 10 August 1893. It was designed as a 3 meter iron cylinder in which a single piston reciprocated, driving a flywheel at its base, and used very high compression of the air and fuel mixture to ignite the fuel.
The diesel engine was a new design because it did not need an electrical spark-ignition system as was necessary for the internal combustion engine which had been invented by another German engineer, Karl Benz.
By 1898, Rudolf Diesel was a millionaire. His engines were used to diesel generator set, electric and water plants, automobiles and trucks, and marine craft, and soon after were used in mines, oil fields, factories, transoceanic shipping etc.
Except for the diesel engine, Rudolf Diesel also developed an engine that ran on peanut oil in 1900 – predating today’s interest in bio-fuels by more than a century!
Now we well understand that Rudolf Diesel invent the diesel engine, which brings a great convenience to our economy and life.
However, his death is mysterious so far. In 1913, Diesel boarded a boat in Belgium to cross the English Channel to discuss conversion of Britain’s submarine fleet to diesel power. During that trip he disappeared, and his decomposed body was found ten days later. Diesel’s death remains a mystery. Cases have been made for both suicide and murder, based on both a history of “breakdowns” and speculation about conspiracies by business interests that Diesel’s work may have threatened.
