Engineer and inventor — Rudolf Diesel (Paris 1858 – English Channel 1913) was a German engineer and inventor, trained at the Munich Polytechnic under the thermodynamicist Carl von Linde. Seeking a heat engine more efficient than the steam engine and the petrol engine, in the early 1890s he designed an internal combustion engine in which the fuel ignites purely through the high compression of the air, without a spark plug. The Diesel engine, patented in 1892 and built in 1897, achieved efficiencies far higher than those of the time and revolutionised transport and industry. Diesel engines still power ships, lorries and agricultural machinery around the world today.
Trivia
In 1913 Diesel disappeared mysteriously, falling into the sea during a night crossing of the Channel: his body was found days later, and the cause of death, possibly suicide, remains uncertain.
Theories and contributions
- Diesel cycle — Thermodynamic cycle with compression ignition, in which combustion takes place at constant pressure; high efficiency thanks to the high compression ratio.
Appears in chapters
Linked atoms
1 linked atoms.