The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Diesel, Rudolf

DIESEL, dē'zĕl, Rudolf, German inventor: b. Paris 1858; d. 1913. He was educated in England and at the Polytechnic School, Munich. He became manager of a refrigerating plant in Paris, where he remained for some years, returning to Munich in 1895. For many years he conducted experiments in internal-combustion engines and about 1893 news of his discoveries in this field caused considerable comment. After several failures in trying to make direct use of the energy from fuel combustion, in 1897 he brought out the engine since known by his name as the Diesel engine. He subsequently brought it to a high state of perfection. He came to America in 1912 and there delivered a series of lectures and in the year following the British Admiralty summoned him to a consultation. He lost his life by drowning in the Channel while on his way to England. He published ‘Theory and Construction of a Rational Heat Motor’ (Eng. trans. by Donkin 1894) and ‘Die Entstehung des Dieselmotors’ (1913).