Rudolf Diesel
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- This article is about Rudolf Diesel, the German inventor. For other uses of the word Diesel, see Diesel (disambiguation)
| Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 18, 1858 Paris |
Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel (March 18, 1858 – September 30, 1913) was a German inventor, famous for the invention of the Diesel engine.
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[edit] Early life
Although Diesel was born in Paris, his parents were German. His father was a leather craftsman, and his mother a governess and language tutor. Rudolf was a good student in primary school and was admitted at the age of 12 to the Ecole Primaire Superieure, then regarded as the best in Paris. At the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, however, he and his parents were considered enemy aliens, and were deported to neutral asylum in London. A cousin helped him to return to his father's home town, Augsburg, where he entered the Royal County Trade School. From there he won a scholarship to the Technische Hochschule of Munich, where he was an outstanding student. He became a protegé of Carl von Linde, the pioneer of refrigeration. Diesel was a devout Lutheran.
After graduation, he was employed for two years as a machinist and designer in Winterthur, Switzerland. After this, he returned to Paris, where he was employed as a refrigeration engineer at Linde Refrigeration Enterprises. In Paris he became a connoisseur of the fine arts and an internationalist. He married in 1883, and had three children. He set up his first shop-laboratory in 1885 in Paris, and began full-time work on his engine. This continued when he moved to Berlin, working again for Linde Enterprises. In 1892 he was granted a German patent for the engine, and found some support for its continued development, this time in Augsburg.
[edit] Development of the invention
Rudolf Diesel developed the idea of an engine that relied on a high compression of the fuel to ignite it, eliminating the spark plug used in the Nikolaus Otto internal combustion engine. He received a patent for the device on February 23, 1892. Diesel began building a prototype engine, which was ready for testing by July 1893. The engine was fueled by powdered coal injected with compressed air. This machine stood 10 feet (3 m) tall, and achieved a compression of 80 atmospheres (8100 kPa). It exploded and nearly killed Diesel. [1] Nevertheless, about seven months later a major milestone was achieved when he was able to run a single piston engine for one minute on February 17, 1894. This engine only generated 13 horsepower. He built an improved prototype in early 1897 while working at the Maschinenfabrik Augsburg (from 1906 onward, the MAN) plant at Augsburg. Diesel's engine had some similarities with an engine invented by Herbert Akroyd Stuart in 1890. Diesel was embroiled for some years in various patent disputes and arguments over priority, but in the end he prevailed, and his invention came to be called the diesel engine. He continued its development over the next three years, began production (the first commercial engine was at a brewery in the United States), and secured licenses from firms in several countries. He became a millionaire.
[edit] Later life
Diesel was something of an unstable character, having several nervous breakdowns, and was somewhat paranoid at times. He defended his priority of invention tenaciously. Diesel toured the United States as a lecturer in 1904, and he self-published a two volume work on his social philosophy.
On September 29 1913, while in Antwerp, Diesel boarded the SS Dresden ferry to cross the English Channel. The next morning, the steward discovered that Diesel's cabin was empty. Diesel's body was found in the Scheldt river on October 18.
One theory in Diesel's death is that he died by suicide, possibly due to being deeply in debt. His family stated that he committed suicide because his invention was stolen and a cross in his journal on the date he died indicates suicide. Also, a briefcase containing a very small sum of money and a large amount of debt-ridden bank statements was left to his wife, Martha.
Another theory revolves around the German military, which was beginning to use his engines on their submarines. Diesel opposed this usage, and may have feared that his invention could wind up powering the British Royal Navy submarine fleet.
After Diesel's death, the diesel engine underwent much development, and became a very important replacement for the steam engine in many applications. Because the diesel engine required a heavier, more robust construction than a gasoline engine, it was unsuitable for applications such as aviation. However, the diesel engine became widespread in many other applications,such as stationary engines, submarines, ships, and much later, locomotives. Recently, Diesel engines have been designed, certified and flown that have overcome the weight penalty in light aircraft. These engines are designed to run on either diesel fuel or more commonly Jet fuel.
The diesel engine has the benefit of running on cheaper fuels; Diesel was especially interested in using coal dust or vegetable oil as fuel. Although these fuels were not immediately popular, recent rises in fuel prices coupled with concerns about oil reserves have lead to more widespread use of vegetable oil and biodiesel. The primary source of fuel remains what became known as diesel fuel, an oil byproduct derived from refinement of petroleum.
[edit] References
- Diesel's Engine: From Conception To 1918. C. Lyle Cummins, Jr. Carnot Press, 1993.
- Diesel, The Man and the Engine. Morton Grosser. New le der Erstausgabe von 1913 mit einer technik-historischen Einführung. Moers: Steiger Verlag, 1984.
[edit] External links
- Biography from About.com
- Rudolf Diesel's Engine from the American Chemical Society website
- Biography from Hempcar.org
- U.S. Patent 0542846
- U.S. Patent 0608845ar:ديزل
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