Rudolph Diesel

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Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel (Paris, March 18, 1858 – English Channel, September 29 or 30, 1913) was a German and French engineer, inventor of diesel fuel and diesel fuel. high-performance combustion engine that bears his name, the diesel engine.

The creation of Diesel achieved that the ignition of the engine occurred internally, since the air was compressed inside the cylinder, heating it in such a way that the fuel ignited by itself on contact with the air, which meant a huge change for the use of the engines of the time, and which brought a great advantage for the future.

Biography

Diesel was born in Paris in 1858, the second of three children born to Elise Strobel and Theodor Diesel. His parents were Bavarian immigrants settled in Paris. In 1870 the family had to leave France at the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, and Rudolf was sent to Augsburg. He then returned to Paris as a representative of his teacher's refrigerating machine company.

Between 1893 and 1897, he built in the workshops of the MAN AG company, belonging to the German business group Krupp, the first engine in the world that burned vegetable oil (palm oil) under working conditions. This was presented at the international fair in Paris and was later called with the surname of its inventor.

Diesel was attacked and criticized over a period of several years. Critics have claimed that Diesel never invented a new engine and that the invention of the diesel engine is a fraud. Critics claimed that the diesel engine was based on ideas invented by Herbert Akroyd Stuart.

He was awarded the Order of Merit by the Institute of Mechanical Engineers for his research and development on peanut oil engines, which later used petroleum as a cheaper fuel.

He considered himself a social philosopher, although his book Solidarismus, where he describes his vision for the company, only sold 200 copies.

It is believed that he drowned on the night of September 29 to 30, 1913, as he disappeared from the ship that covered the route from Antwerp to England in which he was traveling. A couple of days later, a coast guard boat found his body. As was common at the time, only his belongings (later identified by his son) were taken and the body was thrown back into the sea. The non-existence of a suicide note or letter has led one to think that it could have been an accident: Diesel, a victim of frequent headaches, might have gone out for a walk on deck, and carelessly fell into the water. However, it is also true that suicide cannot be totally ruled out, since his financial situation at the time was desperate, since he was almost bankrupt. There is a hypothesis that German agents assassinated him to prevent the spread of his inventions, it has not yet been proven that this is real, but his death remains a mystery.

Legacy

After the death of Diesel, the diesel engine underwent a lot of development and became a very important replacement for the steam piston engine in many applications. Because the diesel engine required a heavier, more robust construction than a gasoline engine, it was not widely used in aviation. The diesel engine became widespread in many other applications, however, such as stationary engines, agricultural machines, submarines, ships, and much later, locomotives, trucks, and in modern automobiles.

Diesel engines are most often found in applications where there is a high torque requirement and a low RPM requirement. Due to their generally more robust construction and high torque, diesel engines have also become the workhorses of the truck industry. More recently, diesel engines that have exceeded their weight have been designed, certified, and flown in light aircraft. These engines are designed to run on diesel fuel or more commonly jet fuel.

The diesel engine has the benefit of running more fuel-efficiently than gasoline engines due to much higher compression ratios and a longer duration of combustion, which means that temperatures rise more slowly, allowing more heat is converted to mechanical work. Diesel was interested in using coal dust or vegetable oil as fuel, and in fact, his engine ran on vegetable oil.

Although these fuels were not immediately popular, during 2008 increases in fuel prices, coupled with concerns about oil reserves, have led to more widespread use of vegetable oil and biodiesel. The primary source of fuel remains what is known as diesel or diesel, a petroleum by-product derived from its refining, safer to store than gasoline (its flash point is approximately 175 degrees higher) and does not explode.