Background
Rudolf Diesel was born on March, 18, 1858, in Paris, France, the son of German-born parents, grew up in Paris until the family was deported to England in 1870 following the outbreak of the Franco-German War.
Rudolf Diesel was born on March, 18, 1858, in Paris, France, the son of German-born parents, grew up in Paris until the family was deported to England in 1870 following the outbreak of the Franco-German War.
Rudolf began his education in Paris and spent much time in the Museum of Arts and Crafts, which contained, among other exhibits, Nicolas Joseph Cugnot's steam wagon of 1769, the first steam locomotive. The outbreak of the Franco-German war forced the Diesels to leave Paris and go to London; Rudolf was sent to Augsburg, where his education was undertaken by a relative who was a teacher in the Augsburg trade schools.
Diesel qualified for the Technical University in Munich, where his examination results were the most brilliant in its history. He studied with Carl von Linde, the founder of modern refrigeration engineering, from whom Diesel acquired a grasp of the theory of heat engines. On the basis of this theory, Diesel concluded that an engine four times as efficient as the steam engine could be made by conducting the combustion within the cylinder and working through as wide a temperature range as possible. He theorized that, since the temperature reached depends partly on pressure, extremely high pressures must be used; hence, the air must be compressed before fuel injection in order to avoid premature explosion. Diesel published his ideas in "The Theory and Construction of a Rational Heat Motor" (1893).
Diesel took out his first patent in 1892 in Berlin. He first ran his engine on coal dust, but practical success came with the use of partly refined oil. By 1897, when the invention was completed, its significance to the future of transportation was apparent. Diesel became interested in the commercial exploitation of the engine and in 1899 established a factory for its manufacture, but he had no talent for business. He visited the United States in 1904 and again in 1912, in the latter year delivering a series of lectures. He described the development of his invention in The Creation of the Diesel Engine (1913). On Sept. 29, 1913, he sailed from Antwerp for consultations with the British Admiralty, but he fell overboard and was drowned.
Quotations: "The automobile engine will come, and then I will consider my life's work complete. "
Rudolf Diesel was married to Martha Flasche. They had 3 children.