Rudolf Diesel

World Famous People

Rudolf Diesel


World Famous People (Inventor) - Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel (1858-1913)



World Famous People - 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. 

 Rudolf Diesel, inventor, world famous

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