RUDOLF DIESEL (1858–1913)

The internal combustion engine was developed in stages during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The Otto four-stroke gas engine was introduced in 1876, the small revolutionary petrol engines of Gottlieb Daimler in the decade 1880–90. This was followed by the development of the diesel engine. Nowadays, these powerful, economical and reliable engines are to be found everywhere, not only for transport in trucks, locomotives and ships, but in many other situations. While diesel technology has been greatly developed over the years, the basic principles were established by the man whose life is profiled next.

Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel was born on 18 March 1858 of South German protestant parents in Paris, where he received his early education. His father, Theodor, was a craftsman in leather with an interest in spiritualism who, around 1850, had moved to the French capital, where he struggled to support his family by practising Mesmerism as well as his craft. His wife Elise, née Strobel, a native of Nuremberg who was living in London at the time of her marriage, was the more practical one. They had three children, Louise in 1856, who died in her teens, Rudolf in 1858 and Emma in 1860.