Rudolf Diesel (1858 - 1913)

Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel (1858-1913)

A German engineer and inventor who contributed to the advancement of technology with his internal-combustion engine. Although he was best recognized for his invention of the pressure-ignited heat engine that bears his name, Rudolf Diesel was also an eminent thermal engineer, a linguist, a "connoisseur" of the arts, and a social theorist.

He was born on March 18, 1858. His parents were Bavarian.

Diesel pursued his education in England and at the Polytechnic School in Munich. He worked as a mechanic and parts designer for two years at the Sulzer Machine Works of Winterthur in Switzerland. In 1880, he returned to Paris and began his career. He joined the Linde Refrigeration Enterprises and worked as a refrigerator engineer.

During the year 1885, Rudolf established his first shop-laboratory in Paris and began his 13-year ordeal of creating and developing his distinctive engine. He moved to the Berlin branch to continue his search for an efficient internal-combustion engine, in 1890. In 1892, he received a patent for his internal-combustion engine, which utilized auto-ignition of fuel. His ideas for a machine where the combustion would be transported within the cylinder were published. On August 10, 1893, in Augsburg, Diesel's prime model, which was composed of only a 10-foot iron cylinder with a flywheel at its base, operated on its own power for the first time. For ten years he developed various heat engines, including a solar-powered air engine. Diesel spent two more years at improvements and in 1896, he presented an enhanced model that was very successful commercially .He constructed the first successful diesel engine, employing low-cost fuel while he was associated with the Krupp firm in Essen. His "rational heat motor" demonstrated the first compression-ignition engine in 1897. Commercial manufacture was delayed another year and began at a very gradual pace. However, by 1898 Diesel became very wealthy from franchise fees in great part international. His engines were utilized to power electric and water plants, pipelines, automobiles and trucks, and marine craft, and soon after were employed in applications that included oil fields, mines, factories, and transoceanic shipping. Rudolf spent most of his life at his factory in Augsburg.

On September 29,1913, while on a voyage to London, England, Diesel was lost overboard from the steamer Dresden and drowned in the English Channel.

The diesel engine

Already early Rudolf Diesel (1858 - 1913) was interested in engines. In his youth he was fascinated by the engines of Lenoir and the steam engines that were usual at his time. During his study he learned of his teacher, professor Linde, a famous inventor, that the thermal engine could reach by far a better performance. He referred to the young Frenchman Sadi Carnot (1796 - 1832), who discovered the Carnot' cyclic process, a physical principle that describes the ideal process of the burn in an engine (read more about it in the physics section). Diesel was pursued from now on by the thought to build such an engine. 1890, Diesel had the crucial idea, how the cumbustion process could be improved: The engine takes in just air, which is to be compressed now to a pressure of about 200 bar. At this point, heavy fuel (such as crude oil or petroleum) gets injected by an injector in the air that is heated up because of the huge pressure. The high themperature leads immediately to the inflammation of the fuel by autoignition, which makes a spark plug unnecessary.

First diesel engine prototypes

This principle is not as simple as it sounds. The conversion into the practice was very problematic. Such high pressures and temperatures had never been used before, and the first experimental engine, built 1893 together with the Maschinenfabrik Augsburg (MAN) in Germany led to its destruction. Only a second engine, built 1896, could convince the engineers and performed an efficiency of about 25 percent, which was by far more than any other engine's performance at that time. But the engine was not after Diesel's requires yet: The compression ratio was still low and the max. pressure therefore small (about 30 bar), additionally a fuel injection was not yet possible. He had to use an air-injection, a procedure, which required many very complicated, expensive and heavy additional devices. This engine could become generally accepted only with many difficulties, because of economic problems - fuel oil and petroleum were very expensive - and disputes about patents delayed a successful introduction.