Diesel was born on 18 March 1858 at 38 Rue Notre-Dame-de-Nazareth in Paris,France,[2] the second of three children of Elise (née Strobel) and Theodor Diesel. His parents were Bavarian immigrants living in Paris.[3][4] Theodor Diesel, abookbinder by trade, left his hometown ofAugsburg,Bavaria, in 1848. He met his wife, a daughter of aNuremberg merchant, in Paris in 1855 and became a leather goods manufacturer there.[5]
Shortly after his birth, Diesel was given away to aVincennes farmer family, where he spent his first nine months. When he was returned to his family, they moved into a flat at 49 Rue de la Fontaine-au-Roi. At the time, the Diesel family suffered from financial difficulties, thus young Rudolf Diesel had to work in his father's workshop and deliver leather goods to customers using a barrow. He attended aProtestant-French school and soon became interested in social questions and technology.[6] Being a very good student, 12-year-old Diesel received the Société pour l'Instruction Elémentaire bronze medal[7] and had plans to enter Ecole Primaire Supérieure in 1870.[8]
At the outbreak of theFranco-Prussian War the same year, his family were deported to England, settling inLondon, where Diesel attended an English-speaking school.[8] Before the war's end, however, Diesel's mother sent 12-year-old Rudolf to Augsburg to live with his aunt and uncle, Barbara and Christoph Barnickel, to become fluent in German and to visit theKönigliche Kreis-Gewerbeschule (Royal County Vocational College), where his uncle taught mathematics. He was enrolled at theTechnische Hochschule (Technical High School).[9]
At the age of 14, Diesel wrote a letter to his parents saying that he intended to become an engineer. After finishing his basic education at the top of his class in 1873, he enrolled at the newly founded Industrial School of Augsburg. Two years later, he received a merit scholarship from theRoyal Bavarian Polytechnic of Munich, which he accepted against the wishes of his parents, who wanted him to begin working instead.
One of Diesel's professors in Munich wasCarl von Linde. Diesel was unable to graduate with his class in July 1879 because he fell ill withtyphoid fever. While waiting for the next examination date, he gained practical engineering experience at theSulzer Brothers Machine Works inWinterthur, Switzerland. Diesel graduated in January 1880 with highest academic honours and returned to Paris, where he assisted Linde with the design and construction of a modern refrigeration and ice plant. Diesel became the director of the plant a year afterwards.
In 1883, Diesel married Martha Flasche, and continued to work for Linde, gaining numerouspatents in both Germany and France.[10]
In early 1890, Diesel moved to Berlin with his wife and children, Rudolf Jr, Heddy, and Eugen, to assume management of Linde's corporate research and development department and to join several other corporate boards. Since he was not allowed to use for his own purposes the patents he developed while an employee of Linde's, he expanded beyond the field of refrigeration. He first worked with steam, his research intothermal efficiency andfuel efficiency leading him to build a steam engine usingammoniavapor. During tests, however, the engine exploded and almost killed him. His research into high-compression cylinder pressures tested the strength of iron and steel cylinder heads. One exploded during a test run. He spent many months in a hospital, followed by health and eyesight problems. It was during this year that Diesel began conceptualising the idea of a diesel engine.[11]
Ever since attending lectures of von Linde, Diesel worked on designing an internal combustion engine that could approach the maximum theoretical thermal efficiency of theCarnot cycle. In 1892, after working on this idea for several years, he considered his theory to be completed. In the same year, Diesel was given the German patent DRP 67207.[12] In 1893, he published a treatise entitledTheory and Construction of a Rational Heat-engine to Replace the Steam Engine and The Combustion Engines Known Today, that he had been working on since early 1892.[13] This treatise formed the basis for his work on and development of the diesel engine. By summer 1893, Diesel had realised that his initial theory was erroneous, leading him to file another patent application for the corrected theory in 1893.[12]
Diesel understoodthermodynamics and the theoretical and practical constraints on fuel efficiency. He knew that as much as 90% of the energy available in the fuel is wasted in a steam engine. His work in engine design was driven by the goal of much higher efficiency ratios.
As opposed to outside ignition applied against internalair and fuel mixture, air wascompressed internally within the cylinder whilst heating, in order for the fuel to establish contact the air immediately before the compression period would end, thus igniting on its own. Therefore, the engine was smaller and weighed less than most contemporarysteam engines, not to mention the fact that further fuel sources weren't required.Fuel efficiency was measured 75% above the 10% theoretical efficiency for steam engines.[14]
In his engine, fuel was injected at the end of the compression stroke and was ignited by the high temperature resulting from the compression. From 1893 to 1897, Heinrich von Buz, director ofMaschinenfabrik Augsburg in Augsburg, provided Rudolf Diesel the opportunity to test and develop his ideas.[3] Diesel also received support from theKrupp firm.[15]
Diesel's design utilised compression ignition as opposed to usingspark plugs similar togas engines, with the ability to be run onbiodiesel, if notpetroleum-originating fuels.Compression engines are circa 30% more efficient over conventional gas burning engines, being mixed through forcedcompressed air within the combustion chamber, leading to a higher internal temperature, expanding at a higher rate and placing further pressure over the pistons that rotate thecrankshaft towards a quicker rate.[16]
The first successful diesel engineMotor 250/400 was officially tested in 1897, featuring a 25 horsepowerfour-stroke, single vertical cylinder compression. Having just revolutionised the engine manufacturing industry,[18] it became an immediate success,[19] with royalties amassing great wealth for Diesel. The engine is currently on display at theGerman Technical Museum in Munich.
Besides Germany, Diesel obtained patents for his design in other countries, including the United States (1895,1898).[20][21]
This sectionneeds expansion with: the balance of Diesel's professional and business career, which skips from a sputter of patents to his disappearance immediately in the next section. You can help byadding to it.(March 2023)
On the evening of 29 September 1913, Diesel boarded theGreat Eastern Railway steamerSSDresden in Antwerp on his way to a meeting of the Consolidated Diesel Manufacturing company in London. He took dinner on board the ship and then retired to his cabin at about 10 p.m., leaving word to be called the next morning at 6:15 a.m., but he was never seen alive again. In the morning his cabin was empty and his bed had not been slept in, although his nightshirt was neatly laid out and his watch had been left where it could be seen from the bed. His hat and neatly folded overcoat were discovered beneath the afterdeck railing.[22]
Shortly after Diesel's disappearance, his wife Martha opened a bag that her husband had given to her just before his ill-fated voyage, with directions that it should not be opened until the following week. She discovered 20,000German marks in cash[23] (US$120,000 today) and financial statements indicating that their bank accounts were virtually empty.[24] In a diary Diesel brought with him on the ship, for the date 29 September 1913, a cross was drawn, possibly indicating death.[22]
Ten days after he was last seen, the crew of the Dutch pilot boatCoertsen came upon thecorpse of a man floating in theEastern Scheldt. The body was in such an advanced state of decomposition that it was unrecognisable, and they did not retain it aboard because of heavy weather. Instead, the crew retrieved personal items (pill case, wallet, I.D. card, pocketknife, eyeglass case) from the clothing of the dead man, and returned the body to the sea. On 13 October, these items were identified by Rudolf's son, Eugen Diesel, as belonging to his father.[25][26] Five months later, in March 1914, Diesel’s wife, Martha, seemed to go missing in Germany.[27][28] Martha ultimately died in Brandenburg on 16 April 1944, at age 85.[29]
There are various theories to explain Diesel's death. Some, such as Diesel's biographers Grosser (1978)[4] and Sittauer (1978)[30] have argued that he died by suicide. Another line of thought suggests that he was murdered, given his refusal to grant the German forces the exclusive rights to using his invention; indeed, Diesel had boardedDresden with the intent of meeting with representatives of theRoyal Navy to discuss the possibility of powering British submarines by diesel engine.[31] Another theory is that his apparent death was a ruse staged by the British government to cover his defection to the British cause, and that he then went to Canada, worked for theVickers shipyard in Montreal and was responsible for a sudden acceleration in its ability to produce a successful Diesel engine for submarines.[32] Given the limited evidence at hand, his disappearance and death remain unsolved.
In 1950,Magokichi Yamaoka, the founder ofYanmar, the diesel engine manufacturer in Japan, visited West Germany and learned that there was no tomb or monument for Diesel. Yamaoka and people associated with Diesel began to make preparations to honour him. In 1957, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Diesel's birth and the 60th anniversary of the diesel engine development, Yamaoka dedicated the Rudolf Diesel Memorial Garden (Rudolf-Diesel-Gedächtnishain) in Wittelsbacher Park inAugsburg, Bavaria, where Diesel had undertaken his early technical education and original engine development.
After Diesel's death, his engine underwent much development and became a very important replacement for the steam piston engine in many applications. Because the Diesel engine required a more robust construction than a gasoline engine, it saw limited use inaviation. However, the Diesel engine became widespread in many other applications, such asstationary engines, agricultural machines and off-highway machinery in general,submarines, ships, and much later,locomotives, trucks, and in modern automobiles.
Diesel engines have the benefit of running more fuel-efficiently than any other internal combustion engines suited for motor vehicles, allowing more heat to be converted to mechanical work.
Diesel was interested in usingcoal dust[33] orvegetable oil as fuel, and in fact, his engine was run on peanut oil.[34] Although these fuels were not better replacements, in 2008 the rise in fuel prices coupled with concerns about remainingpetroleum reserves, led to the more widespread use of vegetable oil andbiodiesel.
The primary fuel used in Diesel engines is the eponymousdiesel fuel, derived from the refinement ofcrude oil. Diesel is safer to store than gasoline, because itsflash point is approximately 81 °C (145 °F) higher,[35] and it will not explode.
In a book titledDiesel Engines for Land and Marine Work,[36] Diesel said that "In 1900 a small Diesel engine was exhibited by the Otto company which, on the suggestion of the French Government, was run onarachide [peanut] oil, and operated so well that very few people were aware of the fact. The motor was built for ordinary oils, and without any modification was run on vegetable oil. I have recently repeated these experiments on a large scale with full success and entire confirmation of the results formerly obtained."[37]
^abUntil 1913, German citizenship was acquired through citizenship in aconstituent state (whose requirements varied); from 1913, uniform citizenship requirements wereset at the national level. As Diesel was born to parents from theKingdom of Bavaria, he held Bavarian (and thus German) citizenship; in his US patent application (No. 608,845) from the 1890s, Diesel stated: "Be it known that I, Rudolf Diesel, a subject of theKing of Bavaria, and a resident of Berlin, in theKingdom of Prussia, Germany...".
^Josef Luecke (22 September 1988)."Rudolf Diesel – A tragic end".Manila Standard. p. 24.It is alleged the cause of the loss of his fortune was due to unsuccessful stock market speculations and poor real estate deals.
^Brunt, Douglas, The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel, 2023; ISDN 9781982169909
^Berlin Correspondent (24 March 1914). "Is Dr. Diesel in Canada? Disappearance of His Widow".Daily Citizen.{{cite news}}:|author= has generic name (help)
Rudolf Diesel:Die Entstehung des Dieselmotors. Springer, Berlin 1913.ISBN978-3-642-64940-0
Rudolf Diesel:Solidarismus: Natürliche wirtschaftliche Erlösung des Menschen, Oldenbourg, Berlin/München 1903. (PDFArchived 10 May 2021 at theWayback Machine)
Cummins., C. Lyle Jr. (1993),Diesel's Engine: Volume 1: From Conception To 1918, Wilsonville, OR: Carnot Press,ISBN978-0-917308-03-1.(C. Lyle Cummins, Jr. was the son ofClessie Cummins, founder of theCummins Company).
Sittauer, Hans L. (1990),Biographien hervorragender Naturwissenschaftler, Techniker und Mediziner, issue 32: Nicolaus August Otto Rudolf Diesel (4th edition), Leipzig, DDR: Springer (BSB Teubner),ISBN978-3-322-00762-9
Brunt, Douglas (2023),The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel, United States: Atria Books, a division of Simon & Schuster,ISBN978-1982169909
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