Rudolf Diesel

RUDOLF DIESEL

Rudolf Christian Carl Diesel was born on March 18, 1858, in the house of Theoder Diesel, a bookbinding maker in Paris, France, and died on September 29, 1913, at the age of 55.

Within weeks of Rudolf's birth, he was handed over to a peasant family in the Vincennes, Paris, where he spent nine months at a farmer's home, Even before Rudolf's birth, his family was in financial trouble, and this is probably why Rudolf began his career at a very young age, starting work at his father's workshop.

At the same time, he started his educational journey from a local school and soon after winning a bronze medal at the age of 12 for his ability, he started his struggle for education in high school in 1870.

The same year, due to the war, Rudolf's family moved to London, England, and Rudolf was sent to Augsburg, Germany, to study.

At the  age of 14, Rudolf completed his elementary education in 1873 with the first position, at the same time informing his parents of his interest in engineering through a letter, and soon, He began his higher education at the local Industrial School in Augsburg and later, after a successful academic journey of two years, received a scholarship to the Technical University of Munich, Germany.

Rudolf graduated with honors in 1880, and later began his career as an assistant at the Modern Refrigeration and Ice Plant in Paris, with Professor Karl von Linde of the same university, And soon, due to his qualifications, he was appointed director of the plant.

He married Martha Flasche in 1883, Later, in 1890, he moved with his wife and children to Berlin, a large city in Germany, to take over the management of research and development run by a few other corporates and Linde Corporate, Developed a steam-powered engine using ammonia vapor thanks to research on thermal and fuel efficiency during his work in Berlin

(Here, in order to increase the knowledge of our esteemed readers, it is necessary to mention the accident which occurred due to the explosion of the same steam engine and as a result Rudolf had to spend the next several weeks in the hospital.)

In 1892, while studying, he began theoretical work on the design of the Internal Combustion Engine, which he designed, and soon after that year, he completed his theoretical work and obtained a patent in his name.

Later, in 1893, he admitted another error in his theoretical work and filed another patent.

Rudolf understood the barriers between thermodynamics and fuel efficiency very well and knew very well that 90% of the power in fuel is lost in a steam-powered engine, And thanks to his research, he soon began working on better and faster engines

The same year, Heinrich von Buz, director of the Augsburg-based Main Sea Company, was inspired by Rudolf's inventions and gave him the opportunity to experiment.

World First Diesel Engine

As a result of his experiments, the world's first diesel engine was successfully tested in 1897, and Rudolf's engine is still in the Technical Museum in Munich.

(Here we add that to increase the knowledge of our esteemed readers Rudolf used his invention of this engine as an experiment on several vehicles, including the most important diesel-powered train.)

On September 29, 1913, he set sail on a steamship, the SS Dresden, to meet a diesel manufacturing company in London, England, After dinner at 10 o'clock on the first night, he announced his retirement from the ship

According to the crew, they told us to wake up at 6:30 in the morning and went to our room, But the next morning he was not in his room, his nightgown was on his bed, and after much searching, his hat was found near the railing of the deck.

After a ten-day, a  boat releated to neather land pulled a man's body out of the water, but the body was unrecognizable after a long stay in the water, However, during the search of the body, the items recovered from it were identified and the body was handed over to the sea again.

Later, on October 13 of the same year, Rudolf's son, Egun Diesel, identified the items belonging to his father and confirmed that the body belonged to Rudolf Diesel.

To this day, Rudolf Diesel's death remains a mystery. Some people close to Rudolf believe that Rudolf Diesel committed suicide, while others still insist that it was a murder for a number of reasons. 

The most important of these was the meeting between Rudolf and the British Royal Navy in London.

Whatever the cause of Rudolf's death, there is no denying that Rudolf's invention of the diesel engine played a key role in innovating in the world of technology and still holds a special place today.  

Thanks for joining the blog - Syed Murtaza Hassan