Rudolf Diesel - Invention Of Diesel Engine

We all know that all gas stations worldwide will usually have two types of oil being sold. One of them will be petrol which is used by the majority of cars around the world. Another common one will be diesel as it is used by most heavy vehicles like trucks and buses following its cheap price which will ultimately reduce the cost of traveling.

Have you ever thought to yourself why the name of the oil is called diesel? Let us unravel the story of the founder of Diesel, Rudolf Diesel whose contribution to the whole world is huge in developing the world's modern transportation system.

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Early Ambition Of Becoming An Engineer

Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel was born on 18 March 1858 in Paris, France. Rudolf was a German descendant since his father Theodore and mother, Elise were Bavaria migrants who moved to Paries before Rudolf was born. His father can to France in 1848 before meeting his mother in 1855. It was three years later that Rudolf was born.

Following the war between France and Germany, the Rudolf family was evicted from their house in Paris in 1870 and moved to London, England. Elise decided to send Rudolf who at the time was only 12 years old to Augsburg, Germany to live together with his uncle and aunt, Christoph and Barbara.

Elise hoped that Rudolf will learn his native language much better with Cristoph who at the time was a teacher at the Royal County Vocational College in the Mathematic field. At the age of 14, Rudolf started to train himself into becoming an engineer.

He stopped going to school when he was 15 in 1873 and went straight into an industrial school in Augsburg before pursuing in studying at the Royal Bavarian Polytechnic of Munich. Unfortunately, his parents did not take it well as they wanted Rudolf to seek a job but Rudolf wanted to seek more knowledge instead.

Forming New Ideas During His Studies

When Rudolf was in Munich, he got the help of his lecturers who were known for being a scientist and engineers in Germany by finding a method to cool using a machine called Carl von Linde. Carl is an individual who founded the technology of refrigerators that we all use today.

With the support and help received from Carl as well as a small engine developed by him, Rudolf kept his vision of building an efficient engine that is known as the Carnot Cycle in engineering.

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Carnot Cycle is a theory where the fuel in the engine is capable of producing power based on the four successive operations with the exchange of heat from hot to cold that occurs evenly and consistently.

Rudolf's idea at the time was to replace the steam-powered engine that was widely used then but requires a huge amount of fuel that is somewhat less efficient. His idea and research were published with the title, "Theory and Construction of a Rational Heat-Engine to Replace the Steam Engine and The Combustion Engines Known Today" in 1986.

In his writing, Rudolf managed to prove his theory on how to replace the steam engine and later improved the theory of the Carnot Cycle itself which was his original basis from the start. His first creation of the engine was patented with his name in 1893 which was supposed to be the turning point of his success.

Rudolf starts to make plans to test his engine in 1893 until 1897 with the help of a car manufacturer and engineer, MAN Ag. You must have seen lorries or buses on the road with the brand name MAN which happened to be their products.

But things don't always turn out well.

The Stress of His Life

In the first series of tests with MAN, the engine exploded which nearly took the life of Rudolf. The following engine after that also faces similar problems with sizes that are too big or heavy as well as other risks of operating them.

With the amount of pressure received from his investors that started to question his invention, other engineers were assigned to help Rudolf improve his invention. It was the biggest stress of his life but things took a turn and Rudolf started seeing hope in his engine.

Rudolf managed to increase his diesel engine capacity to 26.2% in 1897 which was far much higher than the 10% of steam engines. This was the point of success for Rudolf as his efforts has come to fruition.

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A year after that, another improvement to the engine was made which increases the overall efficiency of the engine by 75%. However, Rudolf's condition seemed to be worsening as time went on.

His life became a mess and his financial status starts crumbling after he filed for bankruptcy despite his invention being accepted by many people. His diesel engine started to be used in boats, factory generators, trains, and other tools of mining. Since his invention utilizes petroleum fuel or bio-chemical fuel, the engines were working pretty well.

Died In The Middle Of The Ocean

Rudolf lived a normal life afterward and started to get back on his feet after holding the copyright to the diesel engine. On 29 September 1913, Rudolf got on a boat from Antwerp, Belgium to travel to London to attend a meeting with the manufacturers of the diesel engine.

After finishing dinner that night, Rudolf went back to his room and requested to wake him up the following morning at 6.15 am. That was his final wish and the next Rudolf went missing without any traces left in his room.

10 days later, a ship found a dead body in the ocean of Norway. Since the condition of the body was rotten, the workers only took the person's belongings and return the dead body into the waters.

The personal belongings found were identified by the son of Rudolf, Eugen Diesel as owned by his father. The most popular belief was that Rudolf committed suicide while he was on that boat but his family members simply denied it.

In one of his books, Rudolf criticized the dependency of mankind on Earth's natural resource, petroleum. Rudolf added that he managed to create a bio-chemical fuel that can replace petrol which is far cheaper and can end the monopoly of oil companies worldwide.

Despite the theories and conspiracies that exist out there, Rudolf's invention has been used and improved from year to year to the extent that there are diesel engines that can compete with petrol engines not only in their efficiency but also their cleanliness.

The legacy left by Rudolf's idea has helped mankind solve their daily life problems.

Source:

• German culture

Also read: The History of Michelin and Its Success