1. The Life of Rudolf Diesel
MakeTrix presents
The Life of
Rudolf Diesel

2. Rudolf Diesel, Biofuels Visionary
Who was Rudolf Diesel? Rudolf Diesel is the German engineer who invented the Compression Heat Engine, more commonly known today as the Diesel Engine. His efforts were aimed at developing a high efficiency engine that would surpass the Steam Engine. Revolutionary in its time, the Compression Heat Engine could burn virtually any fuel via the high temperature created by compressing the chamber’s air prior to fuel injection. In other words, this engine required NO spark plugs. On April 13, 1912 during a speech he gave in Saint Louis, Missouri Diesel stated “The use of vegetable oils for engine fuels may seem insignificant today, but such oils may become, in the course of time, as important as petroleum and the coal-tar products of the present time ………Motive power can still be produced from the heat of the sun, always available, even when the natural stores of solid & liquid fuels are completely exhausted.” Rudolf Diesel was truly a biofuels visionary.

3. Early Years
Rudolf Diesel was born to Theodor & Elise Diesel on March 18, 1858 in Paris, France.
Sister Emma is born.
Rudolf has an insatiable interest in all things mechanical. He is an avid student who learns the to German, French, & English languages. He completes his elementary education with high honors having been awarded a bronze medal for academic excellence.
As a result of the Franco-Prussian War, the Diesel family is expelled from France. On September 6th the family boards a steamer headed for London, England. Rudolf continues his studies. He spends his spare time visiting the engineering & science exhibits in the South Kensington Museum and the British Museum.
Due to his family’s financial troubles, Rudolf moves to Augsburg, Germany to live with Professor to Christoph Barnickel, a family relative. He enrolls in a 3 year program at an Augsburg technical school. He studies chemistry, art, & industrial arts.
1873: In October he enters an Augsburg mechanical engineering program where he rises to the top of his class. In the physics lab, he encounters the intriguing pneumatic lighter, an air pump that uses highly compressed air to create hot sparks. The seed has been planted.

4. College & Early Professional Years
Following graduation, Rudolf Diesel is awarded a scholarship to attend the Munich Polytechnikum While there, he studies thermodynamics under Professor Carl von Linde, the inventor of the compressed-ammonia refrigerator.
While in Munich, Rudolf begins his life pursuit of developing an economical efficient heat engine to Steam engines powered industry throughout the world. The steam engine was only 10% efficient and extremely expensive. Only large wealthy companies could afford steam engine power. Diesel is greatly troubled by the power disadvantages suffered by small businesses. He sets his life mission on the development of an affordable efficient heat engine, the everyman’s engine.
Rudolf graduates from the Munich Polytechnikum & becomes an apprentice at the Sulzer Brothers to Machine Works in Winterthur, Switzerland. He becomes a refrigeration expert through his hard work & determination. In short time, he is sent to Paris as a refrigeration engineer in the newly built refrigeration manufacturing plant. Rudolf is promoted to Plant Manager.
Diesel receives his first patent for an ice manufacturing machine. As a result of the Franco-Prussian
Diesel negotiates a contract with the Augsburg Machine Works (MAN AG) to begin the production of components for his ice machine.

5. The Invention of the Compression Ignition Engine
Rudolf Diesel marries Martha Flasche while in Munich. Their first child, Rudolf Jr., is born a year later. He would be followed by a daughter, Heddy, and later their son, Eugen.
Diesel conducts experimentation on an ammonia-fueled engine in his personal laboratory. Although this concept fails, his efforts lay the ground work for the invention of the diesel engine.
Through Carl von Linde’s support, he obtains a franchise to distribute & sell Linde’s refrigerators in Northern Germany. The Diesel family moves to Berlin. He invents the new heat engine.
On February 28th Diesel receives his patent for the compression heat engine, German Patent# ,207. This radical engine could burn virtually any fuel via the high temperature created by compressing the chamber’s air prior to fuel injection. Spark plugs were not required for ignition.
Diesel publishes his famous paper entitled “Theory & Construction of a Rational Heat Engine to Replace the Steam Engine & Contemporary Combustion Engine.” The paper describes this revolutionary engine as a compression ignition engine.
In order to build prototypes of his new engine, Rudolf obtains assistance from the Augsburg Machine Works in exchange for engine sales rights in Germany. He also receives financial support from the Sulzer Brothers’ Swiss-based company & the Friedrich Krupp Werke at Essen.

6. Engine Research & Development
Diesel builds the first prototype which contains a large flywheel at the base & a 10 foot iron cylinder. During testing, it is first fueled with kerosene and later with gasoline. Although the engine runs briefly, it was quickly shut down when the pressure gauge exploded. Diesel barely escapes injury. This first engine fails to generate enough power to sustain operation.
Rudolf radically redesigns the engine, continues to experiment with multiple fuels, and builds a 2nd prototype. This prototype briefly operates successfully under its own power on February 17th. Test results reveal the existence of multiple technical problems. Through out this time Diesel begins to suffer from severe migraine headaches.
The pressures produced by the engine are immense. Component stresses and frictional forces are to at unheard of levels. Through his material science expertise, Rudolf must re-engineer major engine components. He continues his fuel experimentation, conducting tests with kerosene, lighting gas, heavy oils, & gasoline. He chooses low-grade kerosene as the fuel to power his next prototype.
On December 31st Rudolf Diesel tests his 3rd engine prototype. The engine is 57 inches tall and weighs 600 pounds. The 3rd prototype engine runs well and is a tremendous success having a record breaking efficiency of 26.2% (the steam engine is 6% efficient & the gasoline engine is 12%).

7. Commercialization of the Diesel Engine
Word of the engine’s success spreads throughout the world. Diesel begins to sell manufacturing licenses to entrepreneurs for production outside of Germany. The brewmaster Aldolphus Busch buys the U.S. manufacturing rights for 1 million German marks (about U.S. $5 million today). Busch installs the first U.S. built Diesel engine in his St. Louis brewery.
diesel engines, each produced by a different German manufacturer, are placed on display at the Munich Power & Machinery Exhibition. The engines are one of the fair’s highlights.
In order to manage his new found wealth, Diesel forms the General Society for Diesel Engines on September 17th. The company pays him 3.5 million marks for the rights to his engine. The company takes control of all future development work.
In October Rudolf’s health fails him as a result of his extensive efforts. He undergoes treatment at a private Munich sanitarium with only minimal success. Although successful with his own business, Diesel is unsuccessful as an investor. By 1905, his financial losses as an investor are an estimated million marks.
The Otto Company exhibits a smaller version of Diesel’s engine at the Paris Exposition. At the request of the French government, the engine is fueled with peanut oil to demonstrate the engine’s ability to run on various fuels. The engine wins the fair’s coveted Grand Prize.

8. The Expansion of the Diesel Engine
By year-end 31 companies were licensed to build & sell diesel engines. Sales franchises were present in 11 countries.
diesel engines are in use worldwide.
The Petit Pierre, a French canal barge, is the first commercial ship powered by a diesel engine. The engine, a Dyckhoff/Bochet diesel, possesses a single horizontal cylinder with two opposed pistons.
The French build the first diesel submarine, the Aigrette.
Rudolf converts the entire upper floor of his private mansion into an engine research & development facility. He develops the “petite model” of his diesel engine for use in automobiles The “petite model” engine wins Grand Prize at the Brussels World’s Fair in 1910.
The first diesel-powered ocean-going ship, the Dutch tanker Vulcanus, is launched & remains in service until 1932.
Rudolf Diesel is a strong advocate for the use of renewable biofuels such as seed oils. In 1911 he states, “The diesel engine can be fed with vegetable oils and would help considerably in the development of agriculture of the countries which use it.”
The first diesel locomotive is operated by Switzerland’s Winterthur-Romanshorn Railway.

9. Biofuels Advocacy
On April 13, 1912 during a speech he gave in St. Louis, Missouri describes the recent advancements in diesel engine fuel atomizers which enable the use of palm oil, lard, castor oil, and other natural fuels. He then states, “The use of vegetable oils for engine fuels may seem insignificant today, but such oils may become, in the course of time, as important as petroleum and the coal-tar products of the present time…….Motive power can still be produced from the heat of the sun, always available, even when the natural stores of solid & liquid fuels are completely exhausted.”
In November Rudolf publishes the book Die Entstehung des Dieselmotors which details the development of the diesel engine. Book sales help to offset his mounting debt due to poor investments and multiple lawsuits. By this time, his debt totals nearly 10 million marks. From through 1913 Rudolf sinks into a deepening depression over his financial struggles.
As of 1912, 60 heavy merchant vessels and 365 ships are equipped with diesel engines.
By year-end more than 70,000 diesel engines are in operation throughout the world.

10. Diesel’s Final Years
During the last 5 years of his life Rudolf spends much time on developing a diesel-powered to locomotive. His efforts are unsuccessful. However, he remains convinced that the diesel engine will revolutionize the railroad industry. Sadly, he does not live to see the fulfillment of his accurate vision.
On September 29th Diesel boards the steamship Dresden in Antwerp, Belgium sailing for Harwich, England. He is accompanied by George Carels & Alfred Luckmann. They will be attending the annual director’s meeting of the British Diesel Company. Following dinner with his companions, Rudolf Diesel mysteriously disappears from the ship sometime after 10:00 PM. His overcoat & hat are found the next morning neatly folded beneath the afterdeck railing.
On October 10th the Belgian steamer Coertsen spots a body floating in the North Sea. The crew launches a lifeboat to retrieve the body and brings it on board long enough to recover a few personal effects from the clothing. Per the normal custom of the time, the badly decomposed body is returned to the sea. The personal items are brought to the Dutch port of Vlissingen where they are identified by Eugen Diesel as having belonged to his father.
Although we will never know the truth behind his passing, one must remember Rudolf Diesel for his tremendous contributions to the power, transportation, & biofuels industries.

11. For Reference & Further Reading see:
Greg Pahl, Biodiesel, Growing a New Energy Economy (White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2005), pp
Rudolf Diesel portrait by Kevin Bollhorst © 2016
Slideshow design & programming: Kevin Bollhorst MakeTrix 2016