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N0KFQ > TODAY 29.09.15 15:42l 58 Lines 2583 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 68532_N0KFQ
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Sep 29
Path: IW8PGT<CX2SA<N0KFQ
Sent: 150929/1339Z 68532@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.64
1913
Inventor Rudolf Diesel vanishes
On this day in 1913, Rudolf Diesel, inventor of the engine that
bears his name, disappears from the steamship Dresden while
traveling from Antwerp, Belgium to Harwick, England. On October
10, a Belgian sailor aboard a North Sea steamer spotted a body
floating in the water; upon further investigation, it turned out
that the body was Diesel's. There was, and remains, a great deal
of mystery surrounding his death: It was officially judged a
suicide, but many people believed (and still believe) that Diesel
was murdered.
Diesel patented a design for his engine on February 28, 1892,;
the following year, he explained his design in a paper called
"Theory and Construction of a Rational Heat Engine to Replace the
Steam Engine and Contemporary Combustion Engine." He called his
invention a "compression ignition engine" that could burn any
fuel-later on, the prototypes he built would run on peanut or
vegetable oil-and needed no ignition system: It ignited by
introducing fuel into a cylinder full of air that had been
compressed to an extremely high pressure and was, therefore,
extremely hot.
Such an engine would be unprecedentedly efficient, Diesel argued:
In contrast to the other steam engines of the era, which wasted
more than 90 percent of their fuel energy, Diesel calculated that
his could be as much as 75 percent efficient. (That is, just
one-quarter of their energy would be wasted.) The most efficient
engine that Diesel ever actually built had an efficiency of 26
percent-not quite 75 percent, but still much better than its
peers.
By 1912, there were more than 70,000 diesel engines working
around the world, mostly in factories and generators. Eventually,
Diesel's engine would revolutionize the railroad industry; after
World War II, trucks and buses also started using diesel-type
engines that enabled them to carry heavy loads much more
economically.
At the time of Diesel's death, he was on his way to England to
attend the groundbreaking of a new diesel-engine plant-and to
meet with the British navy about installing his engine on their
submarines. Conspiracy theories began to fly almost immediately:
"Inventor Thrown Into the Sea to Stop Sale of Patents to British
Government," read one headline; another worried that Diesel was
"Murdered by Agents from Big Oil Trusts." It is likely that
Diesel did throw himself overboard-as it turns out, he was nearly
broke-but the mystery will probably never be solved.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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