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Table of Contents
Rudolf Diesel was a German engineer credited for inventing the diesel engine. Besides being an engineer, he was also an entrepreneur.
See the fact file below for more information on Rudolf Diesel or alternatively, you can download our 28-page Rudolf Diesel worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.
Key Facts & Information
EARLY LIFE
- Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel was born at 38 Rue Notre Dame de Nazareth, Paris on March 18, 1858.
- Rudolf was the second child of Elise Strobel and Theodor Diesel.
- Theodor was a bookbinder before he became a leather goods manufacturer when he moved to Paris with the family.
- Due to financial difficulties, young Rudolf had to work in the workshop and deliver leather goods.
- When Rudolf was 12 years old, he was awarded the Sociรฉtรฉ pour l’Instruction Elรฉmentaire bronze medal.
- His plan of entering the Ecole Primaire Supรฉrieure in 1870 was foiled because the family had to leave Paris at the onset of the Franco-Prussian War.
- They moved to London, but shortly after, Rudolfโs mother sent him to Augsburg to stay with Barbara and Christoph Barnickel, his aunt and uncle.
- Rudolf studied there and became fluent in German, and later on attended Royal County Vocational College, where Christoph taught mathematics.
- At 14, Rudolf expressed his desire of becoming an engineer.
- In 1873, he graduated with high honors and in the same year, Rudolf enrolled at the Industrial School of Augsburg.
- In 1875, the Royal Bavarian Polytechnic of Munich gave him a merit scholarship.
- Even though his parents wanted him to start working already, Rudolf accepted the scholarship.
- He then studied thermodynamics and even though he wasnโt able to graduate on time due to an illness, he worked at the Sulzer Brothers Machine Works and gained practical experience in engineering. A year later, Diesel graduated at the top of his class.
CAREER
- In 1880, he moved back to Paris to work in a refrigeration and ice plant owned by Carl Paul Gottfried von Linde, his former professor.
- Just a year after he started working, Rudolf became the director of the plant.
- In 1883, he married Martha Flasche. Born of the couple are two boys, Rudolf Jr. and Eugen, and a girl, Heddy.
- Rudolf moved back to Berlin in 1890, where he became in charge of the Linde engineering office and became a member of several corporate boards.
- Wanting to try and improve the fuel efficiency of machines, Diesel researched fuel and thermal efficiency.
- He then started building a steam engine that was powered by ammonia vapor.
- While conducting tests, Rudolf had a near-death experience due to the engine exploding. This caused him several months of hospitalization and consequential eyesight and health problems.
- Ever since Diesel started studying under Linde, he planned on designing an internal combustion engine that could have a maximum thermal efficiency as close to the Carnot cycleโs theoretical thermal efficiency.
- Rudolf worked and researched on this idea and in 1892, believing his theory to be complete, he applied for and was given the German patent DRP 67207.
- A year later, he published the dissertation โTheory and Construction of a Rational Heat Motorโ, which became the basis of Rudolfโs work and development of the Diesel engine.
- In the summer of 1893, he filed for another patent after realizing his initial theory had errors.
- Being supported by the firms Krupp and Maschinenfabrik Augsburg, Rudolf developed more and more successful models after the other.
- In 1897, he presented a four-stroke, 25-horsepower, single vertical cylinder compression engine.
- The presentation was a success and Diesel acquired design patents on his engine in Germany, the United States, and other countries.
- The engine became an immediate commercial success due to its high efficiency and relatively simple design.
DEATH
- The night of September 29, 1913, Diesel boarded the passenger ship SS Dresden in Antwerp. He was going to London to meet with the Consolidated Diesel Manufacturing company.
- When the crew checked on him the following morning, he was nowhere to be found.
- Ten days after Rudolf disappeared, the crew of Coertsen, a Dutch pilot boat, found a corpse drifting in the Eastern Scheldt.
- The crew, however, did not retrieve the body due to heavy weather and because it was already in an advanced state of decomposition.
- They managed to salvage an I.D. card, wallet, pill case, eyeglass case, and pocket knife from the clothes of the corpse.
- On October 13, fourteen days after Diesel vanished, his son, Eugen, identified the retrieved items to be of his father.
- Several theories of Dieselโs death have been discussed including those of Grosser and Hans L. Sittauer, biographers. Both expressed in 1978 that Diesel took his own life.
- Others suggest that Diesel was murdered due to his disapproval of the grant seeking to give exclusive rights to German forces to use his invention.
- However, due to limited evidence, his disappearance and death are still unsolved.
LEGACY
- In mid-1950, Magokichi Yamaoka, the founder of a diesel engine manufacturing company in Japan known as Yanmar, came to West Germany in hopes of paying tribute to Diesel.
- He learned Diesel neither has a tomb nor a monument, and with the help of people who worked with Diesel, began preparing to honor the inventor.
- In 1957, on the 60th anniversary of the invention of the diesel engine, Yamaoka presented the Rudolf Diesel Memorial Garden built in Wittelsbacher Park, Augsburg, Bavaria.
- Dieselโs engine went through much development after his death. And in many applications, this engine became a vital replacement for the steam engine.
- Despite this, it had limited application in aviation due to the engine needing a heavier and more robust fabrication than the gasoline engine.
- Still, the engine became widely used in other applications, such as agricultural machines, stationary engines, off-highway machinery, ships, submarines, trucks, modern automobiles, and locomotives.
- The Diesel engine was much more fuel-efficient than gasoline engines because it has a significantly higher compression ratio and a prolonged period of combustion.
- This means the temperature of the engine rises at a lower rate, enabling more heat to be transformed into mechanical energy.
- Diesel was also interested in using vegetable oil as fuel. The Otto company used a small Diesel engine and ran it on peanut oil, proving the feasibility of the fuel.
- However, the primary fuel used in Rudolfโs engine is derived from refined crude oil, which is now called diesel fuel.
- Diesel, has a much higher flash point than gasoline, making it safer to store.
- In 1978, Diesel was inaugurated into the Automotive Hall of Fame.
Rudolf Diesel Worksheets
This is a fantastic bundle that includes everything you need to know about Rudolf Diesel across 28 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use worksheets that are perfect for teaching about Rudolf Diesel who was a German engineer credited for inventing the diesel engine.
Complete List Of Included Worksheets
- Rudolf Diesel Facts
- Dieselโs Profile
- Engine Timing
- Edge-gine
- Invented Tale
- Rudolfโs Diesel
- Hunt with Rudolf
- How It Works
- Diesel-filed
- Fatal Investigation
- In Development
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