How it began
Rudolf Diesel, born in Paris in 1858 to Bavarian parents and educated in Augsburg and Munich, began work on a compression ignition engine in 1885. In the 1890s he received a number of patents for an efficient, slow-burning, compression ignition internal combustion engine. From 1893 to 1897 he developed his ideas at Maschinenfabrik Augsburg, later known as MAN. Prototype testing began there on August 10, 1893. After a series of improvements, a test on February 17, 1897, was successful.
Before it existed
Diesel's invention came while the steam engine was the predominant power source for large industries. According to DieselNet, the popular steam engine of the time had an efficiency of about 10 percent. In its early years the diesel engine also competed with another heavy fuel oil design, the hot-bulb engine invented by Akroyd-Stuart.
How it works
The diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that ignites its fuel by compression rather than by a spark. In the 1897 acceptance test, Diesel's third test engine demonstrated an efficiency of 26.2 percent under load. Early diesel engines were large and ran at low speeds because of the limitations of their fuel injection systems, which used compressed air.
How it spread
Sulzer Brothers of Switzerland took an early interest and bought certain rights to the invention in 1893, and the first Sulzer-built diesel engine was started in June 1898. After Diesel's patents began to expire, a number of other companies took the invention and developed it further. High-speed diesel engines were introduced in the 1920s for commercial vehicles and in the 1930s for passenger cars. Both the engine and the fuel it burns are named for Diesel.
Who pushed back
The engine needed more time and work to become a commercial success. Many engineers joined in to improve its market viability, and Diesel did not always find common language with other designers developing his invention. His attempts to promote the not-yet-ready engine led to a nervous breakdown. In 1913, troubled by criticism of his role in developing the engine, he vanished from a ship on a voyage to England.
