Diesel Essay

905 Words2 Pages

Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel was born on March 18, 1858 in Paris, France. He was a German inventor and mechanical engineer, famous for the invention of the diesel engine. He is the second of three children of Elise(born Strobel) and Theodore Diesel. His parents were Bavarian immigrants living in Paris. Theodor Diesel, a bookbinder by trade, left his home town of Augsburg, Bavaria, in 1848. He met his, daughter of a Nuremberg merchant, in Paris in 1855 and became a leather goods manufacturer there. Rudolf spent his early childhood in France, but as a result of the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, his family(as were many other Germans) was forced to leave. They settled in London, France. Before the war’s end, however, Diesel’s mother sent 12-year-old Rudolf to Augsburg to live with his aunt and uncle, Barbara and Christoph Barnickel, to become fluent in German and to visit the Royal County Trade School, where his uncle taught mathematics. At age 14, Rudolf wrote a letter to his parents stating that he wanted to become an engineer. After finishing his basic education at the top of his class in 1873, he enrolled at the newly founded Industrial School of Augsburg. Two years later, he received a merit scholarship form Royal Bavarian Polytechnic of Munich, which he accepted against the wishes of his parents, who would rather have seen him start to work. One of Diesel’s professors in Munich was Carl von Linde. Diesel was unable to be graduated with his class in July 1879 because he fell ill with typhoid. While waiting for the next examination date, he gained practical engineering experience at the Sulzer Brothers Machine Works in Winterthur, Switzerland. Diesel was graduated in January 1880 with academic honors and returne... ... middle of paper ... ...opened until the following week. She discovered 200,000 German marks in cash and a number of financial statements indicating that their bank accounts were virtually empty. In a diary Diesel brought with him on the ship, for the date September 29, 1913 a cross was drawn indicating death. After Diesel’s death, the diesel engine underwent much development and became a very important replacement for the steam piston engine in many applications. Because the diesel engine required heavier, more robust construction than a gasoline engine, it was not widely used in aviation. The diesel engine became widespread in many other applications, however, such as a stationary engines, submarines, ships, and much later, locomotives, trucks, and in modern automobiles. Diesel engines are most often found in applications where a high torque requirements and low RPM requirements exist.

More about Diesel Essay

Open Document