Rudolph Diesel - inventor of the internal combustion engine. Rudolf Diesel. Diesel engine Consequence and versions

Founder of his own first diesel engine production plant in the world.

Rudolf Diesel was born on March 18, 1858 in Paris, France. The boy was born into the family of a bookbinder. He studied in Germany, graduated from college and then from the Augsburg Polytechnic School. After this, he was invited to the Munich Higher Technical School, from which he graduated brilliantly in 1880, passing the final exams with the best results since the beginning of its existence.

Soon, on February 27, 1892, Diesel applied for a patent for a “new rational heat engine.” A year later he received a patent entitled “Method and apparatus for converting high temperature into work” at the Berlin patent office.

Since 1893, Diesel has been developing a new engine at the Augsburg Engineering Plant with the financial participation of the companies of Friedrich Krupp and the Sulzer brothers. The first functioning engine was created by Diesel there in 1897. Engine power was 20 horsepower at 172 rpm. The efficiency was 26.2% at 5 tons, far superior to existing Otto engines with 20% efficiency and marine steam turbines with 12% efficiency. This attracted immediate industry interest. The Diesel engine immediately found application and was appreciated in many countries.

Diesel opened his own first diesel engine plant in the world on January 1, 1898. The work went well. The first ship with a diesel engine was built in 1903. Five years later, the first small diesel engine, the first truck and the first diesel locomotive were built.

Numerous patent lawsuits undermined the health of Rudolf Diesel. The man was treated at the Neuwittelsbach sanatorium. In addition, the financial state of his affairs turned out to be completely unsatisfactory. Diesel was not a good businessman. And the financial crisis of 1913 led to its complete bankruptcy.

Rudolf Diesel September 29, 1913 traveled from Antwerp on board the Dresden ferry to London for the opening of a new plant of one of the companies that produced engines of his design. After he went to his cabin in the evening, no one saw him again. The next day, Belgian fishermen fished out the body of a well-dressed man from the sea. Due to the onset of a storm, they were unable to deliver the drowned man to the port, and threw the body into the sea, having first removed the rings from him.

According to maritime custom, the body was left in the water. Rudolf Diesel's son identified the rings as belonging to his father. Versions have been put forward about Diesel's suicide or murder. The exact circumstances of his death have never been clarified.

Rudolf Diesel Awards

Elliot Cresson Medal (1901)

In memory of Rudolf Diesel

In 1953, the German Inventors Association established the Rudolf Diesel Gold Medal, which is awarded for inventions that have made a significant contribution to the development of the economy and entrepreneurship.

The beginning of the 19th century was marked by the gradual decline of steam engines. Outdated technology has been replaced by efficient and ubiquitous diesel internal combustion engines. Rudolf Diesel is considered the father of the technology that divided the automotive world into “before” and “after”.

How it all began

The boy was born into a family of artisans in Paris in 1858. His parents emigrated from Germany to Paris, and when Rudolph turned 12, with the outbreak of the war they emigrated again to England. The boy was sent back to Iceburg, and a relative, mathematics professor K. Barnikel, took charge of his upbringing. A few years later, young Diesel brilliantly graduated from the Higher Polytechnic School and went to Switzerland to work as an intern at the Sulzer brothers engineering factory.

Soon the young man returns to Paris - to the position of manager in the company of Professor Karl von Linde, the creator of the refrigerator of the same name. From this moment on, Diesel's research quest to create a new engine that will replace the steam engine begins: hundreds of drawings, a ten-year scientific search.

In 1890, Rudolf moved to Berlin and worked independently, without the support of von Linde. Then it dawns on him and he tries to replace the ammonia with heated and compressed air. Later he would write: “As a result of endless calculations, an idea was finally born... instead of ammonia, you need to take compressed hot air, inject atomized fuel into it and, simultaneously with combustion, expand it so that as much heat as possible can be used for useful work.”

Three years later, in 1893, Diesel received a patent for the invention of his revolutionary engine. Rudolf was definitely vain, because he described his invention in his letters as follows: “My idea is so far ahead of everything that has been created in this area so far that we can safely say<..>I go ahead of the best minds of humanity on both sides of the ocean!”

Rise and Fall

However, the first attempts to implement the idea were not cloudless. Experts mercilessly criticized Diesel, assuring that his plans were “absolutely impracticable.” The first 4.5-ton engine exploded right at the Ausburg plant. But the persistence of the engineers did its job, and already at the beginning of 1895 the revolutionary engine was working, developing as much as 13 hp. However, after a minute of hard work, the device overheated and failed.

It was possible to eliminate all identified errors only by 1895, when the plant lost a fabulous sum of 30 thousand marks for research. But the new version of the “Diesel system” engine produced up to 20 hp. power, had an impressive three-meter height and was demonstrated to the public without hesitation - of course, because the efficiency of the invention was twice as high as that of an obsolete steam plant.

In 1898, the engine was presented at an exhibition of steam engines in Munich, which marked the beginning of Diesel’s triumph and enrichment. The largest companies and factories in Krupp and Augsburg, the factories of the Sulzer brothers in Switzerland and the Carels brothers in Belgium, the Deutz company in Germany, and Mearles Watson Yarian in England - everyone wanted patents and did not skimp on the price.

Rudolph became a millionaire and embarked on new projects: abandoning the research of his invention, the 40-year-old engineer bought companies along with oil fields, financed lotteries and founded industries, built luxurious mansions. It is noteworthy that at this time not a single (!) engine of the Diesel system was actually sold.

A scandal broke out when the first customers received their motor parts: due to errors in the calculations, the devices did not start or broke down immediately upon startup! At that time, factories did not pay due attention to jewelry precision in fitting parts and selecting materials - but for the engine they must be resistant to high temperatures.

Accusations of fraud rained down on Diesel from all sides, many contracts were suspended, and soon his factory in Augsburg went bankrupt.

New hopes

What does Rudolf Diesel do as he watches his world, built on loud promises, full of exquisite pleasures and worldwide recognition, crumble? He goes to Paris, where he receives the Grand Prix of the World Exhibition as an outstanding engineer. And then he goes to a psychiatric clinic in Neuwittelsbach to restore his nerves.

And a few months later he returned to the world of big money under contracts, offering the military department in Germany a ship engine with many cylinders for a battleship under construction. Then everything was as it was: invitations and contracts, patents and applications, million-dollar contracts in Germany, France, England, Italy and the USA.

Riddles and answers

Everything ended suddenly and tragically: on September 29, 1913, Diesel boarded the steamship Dresden, the first ship powered by his own engine system, in the port of Belgium. He has a pleasant journey ahead: the English Royal Automobile Club invited the engineer to accept honorary membership. Rudolph actively jokes, reads part of a prepared speech at dinner at the captain's table, then goes up to his cabin... And mysteriously disappears. Moreover, he is not even on the list of passengers on the ill-fated ship.

The body of Rudolf Diesel was found by fishermen two weeks later, having caught him with nets at the mouth of the Scheldt, his son identified the things. The newspapers burst out with the most incredible assumptions: suicide against the backdrop of bankruptcy? Accident? Assassination by the German government for fear of information leaks? But there was no evidence for any version...

Moreover, after the strange death of Rudolf, documents were discovered that raised the question of the true authorship of the “Diesel system” in general! In particular, according to the documents, it turned out that back in 1989, Rudolf paid compensation of 20 thousand marks to E. Kapotain, J. Zaonlein and O. Keller, because these German engineers filed a lawsuit for violation of their patents ... “principles internal combustion engine designs with automatic ignition." In addition, much earlier than Diesel, in 1855-1890. Englishman H.E. Stewart received patents for the modernization of an engine with an injection system running on gasoline.

Nevertheless, it was Rudolf Diesel who went down in history as the creator of the first diesel engine - some still consider him a brilliant scientist, others consider him a vain charlatan, and the truth, apparently, is somewhere in the middle.

Read about how the history of diesel engine production developed after 1898.

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Federal Agency for Education

GOU Russian State Vocational Pedagogical University

Engineering and Pedagogical Institute

Department of General Electrical Engineering

Rudolf Diesel

Abstract work on the discipline

"History of Science and Technology"

Student of group ZEM-208-S

V.I. Mironov

Head of work

G.V. Ermakov

Ekaterinburg 2009

Introduction

1.1 Prodigy

1.2 An engineer can do anything

1.3 The struggle between coal and oil

1.4 He knew too much

1.5 Rudolf Diesel with his family

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

Nowadays, the word "diesel" for most people only evokes associations with an internal combustion engine with compression ignition, running on liquid fuel. And few people know that this engine is named after the German inventor, engineer Rudolf Diesel (Diesel, 1858-1913)

In my opinion, the creation of the Diesel engine by a brilliant engineer gave a tremendous impetus to the development of industrialization in the early 19th century. This man convinced industrialists that nothing is impossible. Everything that a person can imagine is feasible, it is only necessary to make an effort to translate the idea into reality.

An invention... has never been just a product of creative imagination: it is the result of a struggle between abstract thought and the material world... The history of technology considers an inventor not the one who, with one degree or another of certainty, previously expressed similar thoughts and ideas, but the one , who realized his idea, which flashed, perhaps, in the minds of many other people...

Rudolf Diesel: "I am ahead of the best minds of humanity."

Diesel engines are widespread in the world. A rare model is presented on the market without a diesel modification. The creator of this unit, Rudolf Diesel, followed a thorny path to his discovery, overcoming difficulties and the mistrust of others.

1. Biography. Creating an engineering miracle

1.1 Prodigy

Rudolf Diesel's ancestors were bookbinders and booksellers, and the family traces its ancestry to the Thuringian town of Pösneck (Germany). However, Rudolf was born in Paris on March 18, 1858. During the Franco-Prussian War, the Diesel family - Germans by nationality - under pressure from the growing chauvinistic sentiments of their neighbors was forced to emigrate to England. Left without connections and means of livelihood, Rudolf’s father decided to send his son, who showed great promise, to Germany.

The twelve-year-old boy had to set off on his own on a long journey to Augsburg by those standards, first by boat, and then by train with several transfers. His mother convinced him of the need for this step: “Your job is to learn something as soon as possible and help your father. You see the situation your family is in. You are a smart boy, Rudolf, don’t cry or argue with your father.” She hoped that her brother, Professor H. Barnikel, would help the child in Germany.

And indeed, the childless Barnickel couple received Rudolf very warmly. The quiet but very capable boy quickly won love and affection in his new family. He was diligent, attentive, inquisitive and serious beyond his years. Professor Barnikel put his home library at his disposal, and Rudolf began by re-binding some dilapidated books. Communication with his well-educated uncle was undoubtedly beneficial: in 1873 he brilliantly graduated from a real school and was admitted to the Augsburg Polytechnic School with a state scholarship of 60 guilders. In the spring of 1875, the school was inspected by the director of the Munich Higher Technical School, Professor Bauerfeind. Rudolf Diesel was introduced to him as an outstanding student in his graduating class. The young man’s precise and impeccable answers fascinated the professor, and he asked:

What area of ​​technology interests you most?

Mechanical engineering,” Rudolf answered.

This industry now faces enormous prospects. Have you heard about attempts to create an internal combustion engine instead of a steam engine, capable of replacing a steam engine?

An engineer can do anything,” the young man said with conviction. The professor was amazed by such fervor:

With God's help, I might add, young man.

However, Bauerfeind’s decision was already ripe: Diesel was admitted to the Munich school based on the results of the interview. In addition, he was given a stipend of 500 guilders. By earning extra money by teaching lessons and receiving another scholarship from Baron Kramer-Klett, Rudolf ensured a relatively tolerable existence not only for himself, but also for his parents, who moved to Germany, for the entire three-year period of study. Diesel's interests were not limited to technology. Mathematics attracted him as much as music, poetry and visual arts. Young Rudolf’s performance was phenomenal, and his persistence in achieving his goals, without which there is and cannot be success, simply stunned his acquaintances. And he chose a suitable task for himself: to develop a heat engine that would be an order of magnitude more efficient than a steam engine. However, first he had to ensure a strong position in this world, so he accepted the offer to head the plant of the joint-stock company "Holodilnik" in Paris, where he worked for 12 years. In parallel, he continued theoretical and experimental research in the field of heavy fuel engines.

1.2 An engineer can do anything

The second half of the nineteenth century passed under the sign of the steam engine, a device that was as ingenious as it was ineffective. Otto's gas engines, which required expensive lighting gas, and the low-power gasoline engines that soon appeared could not compete with the steam engine, which ran on relatively cheap coal. The latter circumstance forced most inventors to develop engines adapted to use predominantly solid fuel. The most satisfactory solution turned out to be a steam turbine, created almost simultaneously and independently of each other by the Swede of French origin De Laval and the Englishman Parsons. Gradually improving, steam turbines have won their “place in the sun” in the energy sector and ship power plants.

Attempts to use oil or its distillation products - gasoline and kerosene - in internal combustion engines (ICE) have not stopped. An important step in this direction was the kerosene engines proposed by the German Spiel and the Englishman Priestman. Fundamentally, they differed little from the Otto engine, but fuel was injected into them by a pump. Both designs provided for preheating the kerosene in order to convert it into a gaseous state. In 1888, the Englishman Hargreaves built a prototype heavy fuel engine with a nozzle, a ignition ball and cooling of the combustion chamber with water.

At the same time, the German Kapitin proposed injecting two jets of liquid fuel into the combustion chamber in such a way that when they collide, the fuel is sprayed and only then ignited with a candle. Finally, in 1891, the Englishman Stewart built the so-called “calorific” heavy fuel engine. It operated at low compression ratios, and the fuel ignited upon contact with a surface preheated from an external source. The calorific engine was quite viable and even gained some popularity, but its position was forever undermined by the appearance of the first Diesel engine. Back in 1890, Rudolf moved to Berlin, becoming a member of the board of the Joint Stock Company of Refrigeration Machines. The head of the company, Professor Linde, was very interested in the idea of ​​his former student and promised to provide the necessary support at the stage of implementing “in metal” an engine with fuel efficiency that was an order of magnitude higher than that of a steam engine.

Over 10 years, Diesel developed hundreds of drawings and calculations for an absorption-type engine that ran on ammonia. The young engineer’s imagination knew no bounds - from miniature motors for sewing machines to giant stationary units using solar energy!

And yet, Diesel could not create, at least on paper, an efficient engine whose efficiency would be 10-12% higher than that of a steam engine.

Having set out to build an economical engine, Diesel carefully studied the only immortal treatise “Reflections on the driving force of fire and on machines capable of developing this force” by the French officer Nicolas Leonard Sadi Carnot (1796-1832). According to Carnot, in the most economical engine it is necessary to heat the working fluid to the combustion temperature of the fuel only by “changing the volume”, i.e. fast compression. When the fuel ignites, you must manage to maintain a constant temperature. And this is only possible with simultaneous combustion of fuel and expansion of the heated gas.

The diesel engine decided to compress not fuel, but only air, and at the end of compression, inject liquid fuel into the cylinder under high pressure. These considerations are outlined by Diesel in his work “Theory and Design of a Rational Heat Engine.” At the beginning of his research, he tried to create an engine running on coal dust, but to no avail. Only when Diesel used partially refined oil as fuel did he achieve noticeable results. The road was opened to the use of heavy oil fractions as fuel.

In the description of the patent dated February 28, 1892, entitled “Working process and method of making a single-cylinder and multi-cylinder engine,” Rudolf Diesel’s idea was stated as follows:

A working process in an internal combustion engine, characterized in that the piston in the cylinder compresses air or a mixture of some other indifferent gas (steam) with air so strongly that the resulting compression temperature significantly exceeds the ignition temperature of the fuel; in this case, the combustion of the fuel gradually introduced after the dead point occurs in such a way that there is no significant increase in pressure and temperature in the engine cylinder.

When carrying out the working process described in paragraph 1, a multi-stage compressor with a receiver is attached to the working cylinder. It is also possible to connect several working cylinders to each other or to cylinders for pre-compression and subsequent expansion. A year after receiving the patent, the theoretical part of Diesel’s work was outlined by him in the brochure “The Theory and Design of a Rational Heat Engine Designed to Replace the Steam Engine and Other Currently Existing Engines.” In such an engine, Diesel believed, the temperature of the expanding gas mixture should increase not only as a result of fuel combustion, but also before the start of this process - by pre-compressing clean air in the cylinder.

The “rational engine,” like Otto’s gas engines, was supposed to operate on a four-stroke cycle. However, the latter did not suck in clean air, but a working mixture of air and gaseous fuel, which did not allow, due to the possibility of premature ignition of the mixture, to achieve high compression ratios. Clean air sucked in through the Diesel cycle could be brought to any technically feasible compression ratio. If in Otto engines the mixture was ignited by an electric spark, then in a Diesel engine the hot air itself ignited the incoming fuel. Finally, Diesel planned to gradually burn the fuel as it was supplied without significantly increasing the temperature in the cylinder during the power stroke, while in the Otto engine the mixture burned quickly, almost explosively. Thus, Diesel hoped to come close to the implementation of the thermodynamic Carnot cycle.

Never before have theoretical constructs without a practically implemented invention aroused such great interest among specialists around the world. However, as one would expect, most critics assessed the author’s idea as practically impracticable. However, there were examples of a different kind. Professor Schrötter, who was previously skeptical about Diesel’s work, wrote to him after the publication of the brochure: “I read your work with great interest: None of all those who predicted the decline of the steam engine have ever spoken out so radically and boldly as you have. Victory will also belong to courage."

Encouraged by the recognition of his teachers, Diesel decides to build an experimental engine at the Augsburg plant. In July 1893 he was ready for testing. Unlike the ideas outlined in the patent and brochure, kerosene was used as fuel instead of fine coal dust. Initially, Diesel intended to obtain a cylinder pressure of 250 atm; later, for reasons of technical feasibility, this parameter had to be reduced to 90 atm. In fact, starting with eighteen, after a number of modifications he managed to increase the degree of pressure increase only to thirty-four. Regarding the introduction of water cooling, Diesel later, explaining the operation and test results of the first experimental engine in his report at the congress of the Union of German Engineers, will say the following:

“I would like to draw your attention to the fact that this machine worked without a water jacket and that, thus, the possibility of working without water cooling, envisaged theoretically, was proven. For practical reasons, in further developments of the machine, a water cooling jacket was used, which visually makes it possible to obtain "The same cylinder dimensions do a lot of work. Based on the extensive experience gained in testing, it became completely clear to me that the point of view that the water jacket in internal combustion engines is the main obstacle to achieving higher efficiency is incorrect."

During official tests in February 1897, the first practical diesel engine was created at the Augsburg plant, conducted under the direction of Professor M. Schröter, this unit, three meters high, developed 172 rpm and with a single cylinder diameter of 250 mm, a piston stroke of 400 mm “produced” from 17.8 to 19.8 hp, consuming 258 g of oil per 1 hp. at one o'clock. At the same time, the thermal efficiency was 26.2% - twice as high as that of a steam engine. None of the engines that existed before that time had such indicators.

The engine operated in four strokes. During the first stroke of the piston, air was sucked into the cylinder, during the second it was compressed to approximately 3.5-4 MPa, heating up to approximately 600°C. At the end of the second stroke of the piston, liquid fuel began to be introduced into the medium of compressed (heated by compression) air through an air atomization nozzle (compressed air under a pressure of 5-6 MPa) (kerosene was used during tests). Entering the heated air environment, the fuel self-ignited and burned at almost constant pressure (but not at a constant temperature, as Diesel expected when patenting the cycle) as it was fed into the cylinder, which lasted approximately 1/5-1/ of the third stroke of the piston. During the rest of the piston stroke, combustion products expanded. During the fourth stroke of the piston, the exhaust combustion products were released into the atmosphere. The operating cycle of the created engine was very different from the patented one.

Then we moved on to fuel injection. Contrary to expectations, its combustion occurred very quickly, and therefore the pressure and temperature in the cylinder increased sharply. The engine almost exploded, during one of the experiments the pressure indicator shattered into pieces, and Diesel himself was almost hit in the head by a piece of debris. Apparently, before this, Rudolph did not attach much importance to the effect of self-ignition of fuel. The prototype engine did not have a cooling system. In addition, due to excessive friction in individual components, it turned out to be inoperable. An entry appeared in the test report: “It is considered impossible to carry out the work process on this imperfect machine.” It took five months to produce the improved sample. In parallel, Diesel took out a second patent, in which he actually abandoned isothermal combustion of fuel in favor of isobaric combustion. On February 17, 1894, the second experimental Diesel engine operated for one minute, making 88 revolutions. Finally, Diesel was able to write in his diary: “The viability of my business, the feasibility of my idea have been proven.” The second series of experiments, which lasted until mid-March, instilled the same confidence in others. By the fall, we managed to obtain a diagram of engine operation that fully corresponded to the theory.

Diesel proposed convening a technical conference with the participation of representatives of the Krupp company, which wished to join in the creation of a new engine. As a result of the conference, the second prototype of the engine, which needed further development, was sent to Austria to one of the Krupp factories, and in Augsburg they began to manufacture an improved third copy. “The first one doesn’t work, the second one works imperfectly, the third one will be good,” Diesel said with unshakable confidence.

The fuss that arose around the inventor’s work testified to its undoubted success. Diesel's "predecessors" began to attack, making their claims to the authorship of the idea of ​​a heavy fuel engine. Numerous European firms showed interest in the invention. The German company Karel Brothers was the first to acquire the patent, then the Diesel joint-stock company was created in France, which began building its own plant in Bar-de-Luc. But there hasn’t been a truly efficient engine yet! Only at the beginning of 1895 was the construction of the third prototype completed, which already contained all the main elements of the future diesel engine. It was liquid cooled and had an air pump for fuel injection. On May 1, the engine operated continuously for 30 minutes, and at the end of June the first experiments with operation under load were carried out.

More and more people were involved in the creation of a diesel engine. With exceptional insight, Diesel surrounded himself with excellent employees. The inventor’s confidence was conveyed to doubters; his hard work and perseverance in achieving the goal had the most favorable effect on the pace of work.

In December 1896, the production of the first “large” 20 hp engine, which could be used industrially, was completed. Diesel sent a letter to Krupp: “Finally, we have a completely ready, economical engine with which we will win.” The degree of pressure increase in the cylinder reached thirty-five, and the air temperature at the end of the compression cycle was 700:800 AC. Kerosene was used as fuel, injected by a fuel pump through an injector. The dimensions of the cylinder were impressive: its diameter was 250 mm and the piston stroke was 400 mm. While the best steam engines had efficiency. no more than 15%, the still imperfect diesel engine demonstrated efficiency. at 34%. Fuel consumption did not exceed 240 g/hp.3ch at nominal mode and 280 g/hp.3ch at half power mode.

1.3 The struggle between coal and oil

In 1898, an exhibition of steam engines opened in Munich, which became the culmination of the incredible success of Diesel and his engine. A whole exhibition was set up here: a thirty-horsepower engine from the Augsburg plant drove the Brakemann pump, a twenty-horsepower engine from the Otto-Deutz plant worked on a machine for producing liquid air, and a thirty-five-horsepower Krupp diesel engine rotated the shaft of a high-pressure pump, which produced a jet 40 m high. The exhibition was colossal. Licenses for the production of Diesel engines were sold in great demand by German and foreign companies. In Russia, the major industrialist Nobel took charge of introducing diesel engines into the energy sector and shipbuilding. On his instructions, chief engineer Nordstrom, using the technical solutions of a licensed 20 hp engine, began designing his own version of the engine, which was supposed to run on crude oil. A year later, the redesigned engine entered testing, which ended successfully. It should be noted that this result turned out to be not superfluous at all: the fact is that, for example, in France, at first, due to the abundance of “childhood diseases,” the diesel engine seriously undermined its reputation. In addition, the required manufacturing accuracy of a number of Diesel engine parts significantly exceeded the level achieved at most machine-building plants. In addition to technological difficulties, the industry was faced with the question of creating new heat-resistant materials. Faced with problems, some companies declared that diesel engines were “unsuitable” for mass production. Diesel's ill-wishers picked up this idea and began to reproach him for all mortal sins: from incompetence to theft of other people's ideas. Temporary setbacks, although they shook the inventor’s mental health (he was even forced to undergo treatment with a psychiatrist for some time), could not change the fact that just such an engine was in demand by world industry. If in 1902 -1904. a ton of oil on the world market cost 6 rubles. 10 kopecks, then in 1905 -1907. the price has already increased to 14 rubles. 88 kop. The figures clearly demonstrate how much the demand for oil has increased; to a large extent this happened due to the increasingly widespread introduction of internal combustion engines, including diesel engines. Instead of the usual consumption of 0.8...0.9 kg/hp3, characteristic of ship steam engines, Diesel engines consumed four times less fuel, which made it possible to significantly increase the cruising range. In addition to high efficiency, an important trump card of the internal combustion engine was the ease of fuel supply. On the battleships of that time, equipped with steam engines, dozens of stokers continuously worked in the boiler rooms, shoveling coal into the insatiable furnaces. The use of liquid fuel, which powered diesel engines, almost completely eliminated such wasteful labor costs. At the turn of the century, electricity increasingly penetrated into all aspects of society. Electric lighting of apartments, electric motors in enterprises, trams on city streets: At first, power station generators worked in conjunction with high-speed steam engines that produced 400:600 rpm. This rotation speed did not ensure efficient operation of the dynamos. In addition, the unit power of steam engines was insufficient for large power plants. The need for a special engine, fast and economical, arose after the first successes made by electrical engineering, and as they expanded, it only increased. Therefore, it is not surprising that the Diesel engines exhibited at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900 received the highest award - the Grand Prix. However, competitors did not stand still. The advent of steam turbines greatly strengthened the position of coal in the electric power industry, but before turbines finally won their place in the sun, high-speed diesel engines tried to compete with them. Where the unit's unit power did not exceed several hundred horsepower, they managed to gain a foothold. In the area of ​​more powerful cars, Diesel engines had to give way. It should be noted that at the beginning of the century in Germany, which had only coal reserves among its energy resources, both some industrialists and the general “engineering community” rebelled against Diesel and his idea of ​​​​the increasingly widespread use of liquid fuel. At the same time, the former defended their commercial interests, while the latter resisted the introduction of new things due to rigidity of thinking. In order to somehow justify their position, the German engineering community focused on the differences between the content of Diesel's patents and the actual design solutions that were implemented in diesel engines. And formally, the critics were right: after all, neither coal dust as a fuel nor its isothermal controlled combustion were ever implemented. Then inventors joined in the persecution of Diesel, believing that their ideas had been stolen. In order to quell the wave of ill will, Diesel had to pay compensation - 20 thousand marks to three German engineers: E. Kapiten, J. Zonlein and O. Keller. But the Society of German Engineers did not let up. In 1904, at its annual congress, it defiantly awarded the “turbinists” Laval and Parsons the highest award - the Grastgoff medal. Foreigners were extremely rarely awarded this award, and the German Rudolf Diesel never became its owner. The attacks, rare in their ferocity, did not stop. The pseudo-term “Diesel-and-company engine” was introduced into use, and on the sidelines of the congress the advisability of using the term “oil engine” instead of “diesel engine” was quite seriously discussed.

1.4 He knew too much

Faced with a wall of hostility in Germany, Diesel tried to establish normal relationships with foreign industrialists. And here he was luckier: in France, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Russia and America he found a much more cordial welcome than in his historical homeland. The Swiss plant of the Sulzer brothers developed a two-stroke diesel engine with valve purge. While inferior to four-stroke engines in efficiency, a two-stroke engine of the same mass was almost twice as powerful as them. Another undoubted advantage of the “two-stroke” was the relative simplicity of reverse, which was absolutely necessary for marine power units. Then the Swiss were the first in the world to begin creating a locomotive with a Diesel engine.

Enormous successes in the implementation of diesel engines on ships and vessels have been achieved in Russia. In 1897, a patent for the construction of a new engine was acquired by the L. Nobel mechanical plant in St. Petersburg, which later became Russian Diesel, and in 1898 this plant began building diesel engines. Already in January 1899, the first single-cylinder engine with a power of 20 hp. at 200 rpm it worked on crude oil with a flow rate of 220 g/l.c.h. Russian Diesel engines were installed at power plants in the city and at the pumping station of the St. Petersburg water supply system. With their help, the Eliseev Trading House on Nevsky Prospekt was illuminated.

Back in 1898, the outstanding Russian shipbuilder K.P. Boklevsky first put forward the idea of ​​the feasibility of using internal combustion engines on ships. He believed: “The future belongs to motor ships.” It was during these years that a new word “motor ship” appeared in the Russian language.

Following the semi-experimental installation on the Vandal oil barge, the tanker-motor ship Sarmat appeared on the Volga in 1904. It used the so-called “Del Proposto power plant”: when moving forward, the diesel engine worked directly on the propeller, and to move backward it switched to an electric generator, which supplied current to the electric motor with the opposite direction of rotation of the rotor. Soon after the completion of the first navigation, the owners summed up the results: the ship turned out to be five times more economical than a steamship of the same displacement.

Diesel engines were soon in demand only by the emerging submarine fleet. The first Russian submarine equipped with a diesel engine was the Lamprey, followed by the Akula. The gunboats built for the Amur River Flotilla were also equipped with Diesel engines. Thoughts arose about the feasibility of creating cruisers and even battleships with similar power plants.

The use of diesel engines in the automotive industry promised no less promise. Rudolf Diesel personally took up this problem, and in 1908 the first experimental engine was ready. Installed on a truck, it went through a series of tests that ended in failure. The desire to reduce the specific gravity of the engine as much as possible in pursuit of the same indicator of a gasoline engine (20 kg/hp) had a negative impact on reliability. In fact, in this area, Diesel tried to get ahead of his time, and it is not surprising that he failed. Having invested a lot of effort and mental energy into working on a small-sized diesel engine, the inventor was forced to retreat.

However, despite this failure, Diesel's technical talent was finally recognized by the ruling circles of Germany. In the presence of Kaiser Wilhelm II, the inventor was awarded a diploma conferring upon him the honorary title of Doctor of Engineering. Particularly interested in creating new weapons, the monarch decided to involve Diesel in the creation of the latest secret weapon - a flamethrower, the idea of ​​​​which was proposed by Professor Fiedler. It was this task, according to Diesel’s biographers, that had the most tragic impact on his fate. The fact is that, almost in parallel with the work on incendiary mixtures, Rudolf continued to improve the design of a reversible marine four-stroke diesel engine and achieved a positive result. The new product aroused the greatest interest in Great Britain, which traditionally considered itself the “mistress of the seas.” In August 1913, Diesel received an invitation to visit Foggy Albion. Probably, German counterintelligence officers considered the trip of the inventor, who was engaged in important military research, to the country of the “probable enemy” undesirable. However, they were unable to cancel it. On the evening of September 29, 1913, the liner Dresden left Antwerp harbor, carrying Rudolf Diesel on deck. At 11 o'clock in the evening, after having dinner at the restaurant, the inventor wished his companions good night and went to his cabin. In the morning it turned out to be empty. Searches on the ship yielded nothing. The press received an excellent reason for all kinds of speculation around the incident. Various versions have been put forward: murder, suicide, momentary insanity... But the true cause of the death of the great inventor forever remained a mystery. What details of the tragedy do Diesel’s biographers report, and what other facts did they base their conclusions on the reasons for his death?

To verify the validity of their arguments, let us turn to the events of the last year of the inventor’s life.

In 1912, when, it would seem, everything was still fine, Rudolf Diesel came to America. The world's engineering community is accustomed to seeing him as a major, successful specialist at the zenith of his fame; it is not without reason that New York newspapers notified their readers of the arrival of “Dr. Diesel, the famous certified engineer from Munich.” In lecture halls, where he gave presentations, in hotel lobbies and theater foyers, correspondents besieged him everywhere. Edison himself - the sorcerer of American invention - then publicly declared that Rudolf Diesel's engine was a milestone in the history of mankind.

Correct, reserved, dressed in a strict black tailcoat, Diesel stoically endured long and stilted performances to his audience. And not a single one of the American engineers who listened to his speech could even suspect then that the brilliant speaker, speaking in excellent English about the prospects of his engine, was in a desperate situation, close to complete collapse. True, it was noted that he dedicated his famous lecture in the vast hall of St. Louis to the future of his engine, but did not say a single word about the difficulties, mistakes, failures, attacks and mistrust with which his invention came to life.

And at the same time, foreseeing or sensing the inevitability of his collapse, immediately upon returning to Munich, Diesel, using borrowed money, buys shares in an electric car company, which soon went bankrupt. As a result, he had to pay off almost all the servants and mortgage the house in order to implement his latest plan, which no one was privy to.

Diesel began the next year with travel: first he visited Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam alone, and then together with his wife he visited Sicily, Naples, Capri, Rome.

He dropped such a strange phrase once, and his wife did not pay attention to it then, but remembered and understood it only later, when everything had already happened.

Then Diesel travels to the Bavarian Alps to visit Sulzer, at whose factory he once underwent engineering practice. Old friends were struck by the changes that had recently occurred with Rudolf. Always reserved and cautious, he seemed to have lost these qualities without a trace and with visible pleasure sought dangerous mountain journeys and indulged in risky activities.

By the end of the summer of 1913, a financial crisis broke out. Diesel became completely bankrupt. And at this moment, having recently refused well-paid positions in American companies, he suddenly agrees to the offer of a new engine plant in England to take up the position of just a consulting engineer. Having learned about this, the British Royal Automobile Club asked him to make a report at one of the club meetings, to which Diesel also agreed and began preparing for a trip to England.

In this short period of time, he commits some actions, analyzing which later, those close to Rudolf Diesel will come to the conclusion that he had already made a tragic decision.

1.5 Rudolf diesel with family

Having taken his wife to visit his mother, he was left alone in his Munich house by the beginning of September.

The first thing he immediately did was to dismiss the few remaining servants from the house until morning and ask his eldest son (also Rudolf) to urgently come to him. According to the son's recollections, it was a strange and sad meeting. His father showed him what was in the house and where, in which cabinets important papers were stored, gave him the appropriate keys and asked him to try out the locks.

After his son left, he began looking through business documents, and the servants who returned the next morning found that the fireplace was filled with the ashes of burnt papers, and the owner himself was in a gloomy, depressed state.

A few days later, Diesel left for Frankfurt to visit his daughter, where his wife was already waiting for him. After staying with them for several days, he left alone on September 26 for Ghent, from where he sent a letter to his wife and several postcards to friends. The letter was strange, disturbed and indicative of his great distress or illness, but, unfortunately, Diesel mistakenly wrote his Munich home address on the envelope. The wife received the letter too late.

Together with two of his colleagues and friends on the evening of September 29 in Antwerp, Diesel boarded the Dresden ferry, sailing across the English Channel to Harwich.

An inspection of the cabin showed: the bunk prepared by the steward for sleeping was not even crumpled; the luggage is not opened, although the key is inserted into the suitcase lock; Diesel's pocket watch was placed so that the hands could be seen while lying on the bed; The notebook lay open on the table and the date September 29 was marked with a cross in it. It turned out immediately that during the morning round of the ship, the officer on duty found someone's hat and folded coat stuffed under the rails. It turned out that they belonged to Diesel.

Only ten days later the crew of a small Belgian pilot boat recovered a corpse from the waves of the North Sea. The sailors removed the ring from the swollen fingers of the deceased, found a wallet, a case for glasses, and a pocket first aid kit in his pockets, and the corpse, following maritime custom, was buried at sea. The son of Rudolf Diesel, who arrived in Belgium on call, confirmed that all these things belonged to his father.

Diesel's relatives were convinced that he had committed suicide. This version was supported not only by Diesel’s strange and incomprehensible behavior in the last year of his life, but also by some circumstances that later became clear. So, before his departure, he gave his wife a suitcase and asked not to open it for several days. There were 20 thousand marks in the suitcase. This was all that remained of Diesel's enormous fortune. Or again: when going to England, Diesel took with him not a gold watch, as usual, but a steel pocket watch...

But if this is suicide, then why, some biographers ask, did Rudolf Diesel, always punctual and scrupulous in any formalities, leave neither a will nor even a note? Why, even on the eve of his death, did he discuss with interest some issues important to his career, and a few hours or even, perhaps, minutes before his disappearance, he enthusiastically spoke with his comrades about the details of his upcoming performance at the car club? Apparently, no one will ever be able to answer these questions.

The disappearance of Rudolf Diesel from the Dresden ferry, like any mysterious and tragic event, at one time gave rise to many versions of the reasons for his death:

There was, for example, an assumption that Diesel was removed by the German General Staff, who feared on the eve of the war that information about the engines being built for German submarines would be transferred to the British.

There were rumors about Ludwig Nobel's involvement in this tragedy. It was also suggested that Diesel was simply washed overboard by a wave when he went on deck at night.

Conclusion

This is where I end the story of the triumph of the outstanding engineer-inventor Rudolf Diesel and his difficult personal tragedy, the tragedy of a courageous, but, as it turned out, extremely vulnerable man. He embodied in his engine the previously accumulated world experience in engine building, the implementation in it of many not yet implemented ideas, and in general the creation of a new type of engine, which became a milestone in energy and transport engineering.

However, Rudolf Diesel's theory became the basis for the creation of modern compression ignition engines. Subsequently, for about 20-30 years, such engines were widely used in stationary mechanisms and power plants of sea vessels, but the fuel injection systems that existed at that time did not allow the use of diesel engines in high-speed units. The low rotation speed and significant weight of the air compressor required to operate the fuel injection system made it impossible to use the first diesel engines in vehicles.

Further work on the diesel engine was undertaken by engineer Prosper Lerange, an employee of the Benz&Cie plant. In 1909, he received a patent for a diesel engine with a prechamber. In addition, he invented the cone-shaped prechamber, needle valve injectors and unit injectors. The first truck equipped with a diesel engine was produced in 1923 at the Mannheim plant. It was a 5 tonne Benz 5K3, which was equipped with a 4-cylinder diesel engine with a pre-chamber of 8.8 liters, it developed power from 45 to 50 hp. With. at 1000 rpm Almost simultaneously with this event, engineers at Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft created an atmospheric diesel engine of similar power, and a diesel engine with direct injection was also designed at MAN (Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nurnberg).

In the 20s of the 20th century, German engineer Robert Bosch improved the built-in fuel pump and made it multi-sectional. Such high pressure fuel pumps are still widely used in the automotive industry. This pump replaced the air compressor that was previously used and made it possible to increase the speed of the diesel engine. High-speed diesel, in demand in this form, became increasingly popular as a power unit for auxiliary and public transport, but the arguments in favor of engines with electric ignition (traditional operating principle, lightness and low production cost) allowed them to be in great demand for installation on passenger and small vehicles. trucks. In the 50s and 60s, diesel was installed in large quantities on trucks and vans, and in the 70s, after a sharp increase in fuel prices, global manufacturers of inexpensive small passenger cars paid serious attention to it. In subsequent years, there has been an increase in the popularity of diesel in cars and trucks, not only because of the efficiency and durability of diesel, but also because of the lower toxicity of emissions into the atmosphere. All leading European car manufacturers now offer at least one model with a diesel engine.

The recent history of the diesel engine began in 1997. Ten years ago, Bosch was the first in the world to market a common rail system for passenger cars. The first models equipped with this technology were the Alfa Romeo 156 JTD and the Mercedes-Benz 220 CDI.

"My engine is still a great success...". The phrase Rudolf Diesel said in 1895 is still relevant. Well, humanity paid Rudolf Diesel himself a high and rather rare honor in the history of technology by starting to write his name with a small letter.

Bibliography

Great Encyclopedia of Cyril and Methodius, 2002.

http://www.dizelist.ru/index.php?id=22 Nikolay Alexandrov

The article uses materials from a specialized magazine

"Construction Equipment and Technologies", "Remembering Names. Rudolf Diesel" S.I. Kornyushenko, No. 4(38)2005

and materials from the resource http://www.infoflot.ru

"Encyclopedic Dictionary of Young Technicians"

Radzig A. A., History of Heat Engineering, M. - L., 1936;

Gumilevsky L. I., Rudolf Diesel. [Biographical sketch], M. - L., 1938.

Among the people without whose discoveries and developments scientific and technological progress would have been impossible in the last century, a special place is occupied by the German engineer and inventor Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel, the author of an efficient and economical internal combustion engine. Now it is difficult to imagine what the modern world would be like if this talented inventor had not presented a model of his engine back in 1894.

And it’s especially offensive that people living in the modern world cannot personally express their gratitude to one of its creators, even posthumously. The fact is that no one knows how Rudolf Diesel ended his days and where his ashes rest. What is known is that on September 29, 1913, the inventor boarded the Dresden ferry, traveling from Antwerp to London, after which he disappeared without a trace.

In 1858, one of three children was born into the family of German immigrants Theodor and Alice Diesel, who settled in Paris, and was given the name Rudolf. The family did not languish in poverty - the father, a bookbinder by profession, after meeting his wife, the daughter of famous merchants, was able to organize his own leather goods production. Although his parents had nothing to do with mechanics, Rudolph was awed by various machines from early childhood. Well, the most favorite place of “pilgrimage” and a kind of children’s university was the Parisian Museum of Arts and Crafts, where he with enviable consistency asked his parents to take him on the next excursion.

However, the boy’s calm and measured life lasted only until the age of twelve, after which he had to immediately plunge into adulthood. In 1870, the Franco-Prussian War broke out, as a result of which, of course, residents of France with German origin and a German surname had nothing more to do in the country. The Diesel family business was requisitioned, and the parents and three children were forced to flee to England. Left with virtually no means of subsistence and unable to provide for the future of their children on their own, the parents had to take a difficult step. At the family council, it was decided that Rudolph needed to go to his historical homeland. Fortunately, not everything looked so scary: Theodore had a brother and his wife in Germany, who, having no children of their own, happily agreed to accept their nephew Rudolf into their family.

Professor Karl Linde actually opened a new path in Diesel’s life and gave him the opportunity to realize himself as a scientist, supporting him in every possible way in his research

And indeed, the young man developed a very warm relationship with Christophe and Barbara Barnickel. Rudolf quickly settled into his new place, learning German, and thanks to his calm character, perseverance and curiosity, he quickly won the love of his uncle, who taught mathematics at a local vocational school. Despite his nephew’s young age, Christophe communicated with Rudolf as an equal, only strengthening his desire to study mechanics and technology in the future. In the end, it came to the point that a year later Diesel wrote a letter to his parents, where he stated that he had already clearly decided on his future - the future of an engineer. The parents had nothing against it - the main thing for them was that their child now knew exactly how he was going to earn his living.

As soon as Rudolf became familiar with the German language after his move, he immediately began attending the Royal Trade School, where his uncle taught. In 1873, he received his primary education, outperforming absolutely all the students at the school. By this time, the newly formed Augsburg Industrial School had just opened its doors, where 15-year-old Rudolf immediately applied for admission. And just two years later, being again the most gifted student at the school, he was given the honor of early admission to the prestigious Royal Bavarian Polytechnic Institute at public expense.

In 1893, Rudolf Diesel received his first patent, which secured ownership of the theoretical basis and design of a “rational heat engine”

Naturally, Diesel, being in seventh heaven, happily accepts the offer, despite the silent discontent of his parents. The fact is that they did not imagine that their son’s passion for science would drag on so long and turn into a theoretical plane. Constantly in need of financial help, they already wanted to see Rudolph working at some enterprise and finally earning money as quickly as possible. However, Diesel managed, as they say, to combine business with pleasure. Because very soon he was awarded a good scholarship, thanks to which he was not only able to provide for himself, but also provide financial assistance to his parents, which they were extremely happy about. Well, besides, thanks to his amazing ability to work and ability to plan working time, Diesel managed to enjoy his other favorite activities - reading and music. Such personality traits greatly attracted people to Rudolf throughout his life.

While studying at the Polytechnic Institute, Diesel had one of the turning points in his life. One of his teachers was a famous engineer, Professor Karl Linde, who was involved in the development of refrigeration equipment. In 1879, Rudolph fell ill with typhoid fever and was unable to pass the professor’s exam with his class on time. Having recovered and waiting for the next certification opportunity, Diesel, without wasting any time, goes to gain experience in engineering practice in Switzerland, where he gets a job at the Schulzer brothers engineering plant. A year later, he returned and successfully passed Linda’s exam, amazing him with the acquired knowledge and experience. This was just the last year of work for the professor at the institute, since he decided to engage in applied research in the Linde Refrigeration Generators company he founded. And, of course, he couldn’t just say goodbye to his capable student, inviting Diesel to work with him, immediately giving him the post of director...

The very first of several prototypes of the Diesel engine, which showed shortcomings that the inventor could not have foreseen during theoretical studies

The laws of thermodynamics that Linde taught at the institute completely captured Rudolf’s consciousness. As he grew older and increasingly philosophized about the structure of the world, he rightly came to the conclusion that they were the ones who were capable of changing the entire society. He saw the main problem in the source of energy for production. The industrial revolution, which had begun to advance by leaps and bounds at that time, relied exclusively on huge steam engines, the efficiency of which rarely exceeded ten percent. Such costly production only increased the cost of products, and only large plants and factories could support it, thereby destroying all other medium and small businesses. Therefore, the situation could only be balanced by the creation of a compact energy source that is easily adaptable to any conditions and production needs.

Work at the Linde company lasted ten years, during which Diesel improved the mechanical refrigerator invented by Linde, the principle of which was that the refrigerant, ammonia, evaporated and condensed with the help of a mechanical pump. At the same time, with the full support of the professor, he conducted numerous experiments to create an effective heat engine, that is, a mechanism that would convert heat into mechanical energy according to the laws of thermodynamics. Or, in other words, I would use the dependence of the thermal expansion of a substance on temperature.

In 1896, Rudolf Diesel proudly presented a finished copy of his efficient 20 hp engine. s., which today is exhibited at the Mechanical Engineering Museum in Augsburg

At first, Diesel tried to use ammonia used in the production of refrigerators as this very substance or working fluid. But the fuel was a kind of powder obtained from coal. No wonder - Germany is famous for its richest deposits of this type of mineral. The experiments consisted of attempts to compress the working fluid in a chamber in such a way that when it is combined with fuel, the temperature necessary for ignition is created - that is, without the use of a spark plug. However, practice did not want to go in parallel with theory - all sorts of variations with changes in physical conditions did not lead to any significant advantage over the existing inefficient steam engines.

Moreover, during one of these experiments, a car exploded, which almost led to fatal consequences. Diesel had to spend many months in the hospital, and he had problems with his vision for the rest of his life. After his health began to improve, at the end of the 1880s, Linde invited Rudolf to head the branch of his company in Berlin, as well as to take part in some commercial projects. Diesel, who by that time had already acquired a wife and three children, gives his consent, but his thoughts were completely taken over by a recently conceived idea...

Rudolf Diesel at the presentation of his engine in 1896, surrounded by leading German scientists and engineers

Somehow Diesel, unexpectedly even for himself, discovered an amazing thing. He came across a pneumatic lighter for lighting cigars. A small glass tube contained a rod - a wick, which is used to make fire. With the help of a piston, the air in the tube was compressed, and the wick began to heat up. We can say that this mechanism also set fire to the entire consciousness of the inventor. It turns out that everything is simple: you need to thoroughly compress the air, which will therefore heat up to the desired temperature, and then combine it with fuel, which will ignite.

Having moved to Berlin, Diesel immediately set about implementing his idea, and in 1893 received his first patent, which secured ownership of a “rational heat engine.” He also publishes a book where he describes in detail the theoretical basis and design of a “rational heat engine.” By the way, at first Diesel called the invented power plant an “atmospheric gas engine,” but this definition did not catch on, later becoming simply the name of the inventor. After some time, Rudolf leaves Linde's company and organizes his own enterprise. And over the next three years, he makes several prototypes, gradually improving them and correcting shortcomings that he could not have foreseen during theoretical studies.

By the beginning of the twentieth century, with his persistence in achieving his goal, Rudolf Diesel made not only himself rich, but also his wife and three children

Ultimately, on New Year's Eve 1897, Diesel proudly presents a copy of his working engine. It was a three-meter iron cylinder in which a piston moved a flywheel. The developed power reached 20 hp. s., and the efficiency was almost 30%. Of course, this was not the 75% declared in theoretical calculations, but this played absolutely no role, since in any case, this invention had no equal in its effectiveness. The Diesel engine worked continuously for more than half a month, finally becoming a tangible trophy of the designer’s many years of searching. True, Rudolf’s idea that his energy source would help small producers get on their feet was not destined to come true at first. Representatives of big business lined up to catch the sensation of the outgoing 19th century.

On Rudolf's 40th birthday, what his parents dreamed of most of all happened - he became rich, very rich. Licenses for the production of engines were sold in dozens to German and foreign manufacturers, shipbuilders and manufacturers of equipment for power plants and water pumps, and the sums that the companies laid out reached a million US dollars. Actually, now in any production installation of steam engines was considered bad form, since Diesel engines were at least four times more economical.

Rudolf Diesel gained fame throughout the world, becoming on a par with the most famous people of the early twentieth century (pictured with Thomas Edison)

Moreover, the issue with the fuel used was resolved. Coal dust, which Diesel initially wanted to use, was excluded because, due to its high abrasive qualities, it quickly wore out engines. And the expensive kerosene that followed was successfully replaced with cheaper oil. Although it is worth noting that the inventor until recently hoped that agricultural products would also act as fuel, because he still believed that his engine should work for the benefit of all countries, regardless of the availability of natural mineral reserves. However, it must be said that it was oil that became the reason for the attacks on Diesel from rival inventors and conservative circles in Germany. After all, the use of coal dust as fuel, of which the country is rich, was initially declared. It is clear that for the German producers themselves, the oil that had to be imported was more expensive. As researchers suggest, this became a time bomb in Diesel’s life...

In addition to manufacturing and power plants, engines have also begun to be widely used in transport. The ships were the first to acquire them, which no longer needed dozens of stokers, and the cruising range of the ships increased significantly. Afterwards they began to be installed on locomotives. It is noteworthy that the first company to do this was the Swiss engineering plant of the Schulzer brothers, where Diesel once did his internship, and the production experience gained there actually allowed him to begin the gradual realization of his dream together with Professor Linde. Later, “diesel trams” appeared... next in line was the automotive industry, which was gaining crazy momentum.

German society does not forget who Rudolf Diesel is to them, perpetuating the memory of the great inventor even on postage stamps

In the mid-1900s, Diesel personally began experimenting with building a compact engine that could be installed in a car. Unfortunately, his desire was far ahead of his time. In an effort to reduce the weight of the power unit so that it could compete with gasoline engines in its efficiency and economy, its reliability decreased proportionally. Therefore, numerous tests only led to failure. Rudolph was very worried about this, since he had a new field for activity, but he could not achieve success in this field. In the end, he had to abandon this idea, the successful implementation of which would appear only eleven years after Diesel’s death...

The very life of the designer after the implementation of his creation changed a lot. The huge fortune and fame that practically fell from the sky breaks something in him - Rudolph ceases to directly participate in further work to modernize his engines. He plunges into the world of commerce, however, as often happens, the inventor and the businessman cannot coexist in one person, and therefore all his enterprises face the unenviable fate of bankruptcy. As already mentioned, in his native country, Diesel was not much favored, but abroad he was greeted with all the respect befitting a high-ranking person - social receptions, receptions, lectures “in his own name,” as well as the most tempting offers of cooperation. However, such differences between friendliness and hostility greatly affected Rudolf’s mental balance. From a calm, balanced person, he turned into a twitchy and suspicious person. At some point, his wife almost forcibly took him to a psychiatrist. His uncharacteristic actions greatly surprised those close to him, however, subsequent events show that he seemed to have guessed something.

In 1953, the German Inventors Association established the Rudolf Diesel Gold Medal, which is awarded for inventions that have made a significant contribution to the development of economics and entrepreneurship.

In the early 1910s, German coal magnates were preparing to deal a crushing blow to Diesel and his engines - in the few years since the worldwide spread of his invention, oil had almost doubled in price, and the “national” mineral was rapidly losing its position. The “accusations” of incompetence and technical failures in his book were to be brought to the attention of the public by a generously sponsored German professor. An acquaintance who worked at the publishing house that was producing this book secretly told Rudolf about this. Being an exceptionally learned man who absolutely did not know how to fight in political “showdowns,” Diesel understood that he would not be able to defend his positions, which would entail the collapse of his career and his life’s work.

Literally a year before his death, Rudolph completely changed. In addition to the expected “exposure,” there was another blow: the multimillion-dollar fortune no longer existed, the reason for which was unjustified commercial games and the onset of the economic crisis. With the remaining money, Diesel and his wife begin to make voyages from country to country, visiting old friends, acquaintances, teachers, who later noted that all communication boiled down to gratitude for everything and farewell... And in the early autumn of 1913, Rudolf received an invitation from the English Royal automobile club to hold several lectures. The inventor begins to prepare for the trip...

He began by inviting his eldest son to come visit his parents' house, which was left without servants. There he, as if by chance, showed where everything was, what documents were and where they could be found “if something happened.” As the son later recalled, he had a lump in his throat, and the foreboding of trouble was intensified by the picture of papers burned in the fireplace, which was absolutely uncharacteristic of his father. And after some time, Diesel handed his wife a suitcase and strictly ordered not to open it until the beginning of October. Later his wife discovers twenty thousand marks in it...

So how did Diesel go missing?

It was like this: shortly before this incident, Diesel received an invitation to come to England in order to inaugurate a new plant of one of the British companies that produced his engines. Those who saw him before leaving claimed that the engineer was in high spirits - the great inventor, although he had many patents, was not a good businessman, and by 1913 he was on the verge of ruin (which, by the way, was facilitated by the emerging economic crisis) . The opening of a new plant in England could improve his financial affairs.

Moreover, some of Diesel’s acquaintances later recalled that he allegedly told them that the invitation was sent to him personally by Winston Churchill, who at that time was already heading the Admiralty. The energetic Duke of Marlborough was going to rebuild the entire English fleet, and he supposedly needed the inventor as a technical consultant. Whether this is true or not is difficult to say, since Churchill never told anyone about his desire to meet with Diesel.

Another strange thing is that... there is still no reliable evidence that it was Rudolf Diesel, and not a person similar to him, who climbed the ladder of the Dresden ferry that day. Strange as it may seem, the name of the inventor was not on the list of his passengers. Therefore, the version that it was him after all is based only on the testimony of engineers Georg Grace and Alfred Luckman, who were heading to England with Diesel, as well as the ship's steward.

Grace and Lukeman said that after sailing, Diesel invited them to take a walk on the deck, and then all three went down to the wardroom to have dinner. During the meal, the inventor was very animated, constantly talking about new proposed modifications to his engine, as well as the bright prospects for cooperation with the British.

At about 10 o'clock in the evening, Rudolf Diesel finally said goodbye to his colleagues, after which he went down to his cabin. Before opening the door, he stopped the steward and asked him to wake him up at exactly 6.15 in the morning. No one saw the inventor again. In the morning, when they grabbed him and broke open the cabin door, it turned out that Diesel took his pajamas out of his suitcase and laid them out on the bed, and also took his watch out of his pocket, wound it up and hung it on the wall next to the bed.

Further inquiries showed that no one saw the inventor leave his cabin that night. The porthole was also closed. This circumstance made the initial version of the police about suicide very vulnerable - the servants of the law suggested that the psyche of Diesel, who was a suspicious person, could not withstand the heavy premonitions of imminent bankruptcy, and he simply drowned himself. However, how did the suicide, crawling out of the porthole, manage to close it behind him, and from the inside?

It also seemed very strange to the investigators that a man who was about to take his own life prudently wound his watch and also asked the steward to wake him up exactly at the specified time. By the way, no suicide note was found in the cabin either. Moreover, the testimony of Grace and Lukeman indicated that the inventor was in a great mood all evening. And after dinner, as it was established, Diesel did not communicate with anyone except the steward.

Another version put forward by the investigation said that perhaps Diesel went out for a walk at night, stood by the side, and then suddenly had a heart attack. The unfortunate man found himself overboard and could not even call for help. This version was supported by the fact that the inventor’s cloak and hat were found on the deck in the morning. However, the arguments against were much more weighty: the height of the sides of the Dresden was more than one and a half meters, and even a healthy person could hardly climb over them. In addition, Diesel’s family, friends and personal doctor unanimously stated that the inventor never had heart problems.

It was also suggested that the inventor could have been killed - for example, on the instructions of competing companies that produced gasoline carburetor engines (Diesel's invention, which ran on cheap fuel oil and diesel fuel and was safer, took away a significant market segment from them). Or the intelligence services of the Kaiser’s Germany had a hand in the murder, who did not at all want the British, their potential opponents, to modernize the fleet on the eve of a possible war. However, who was the killer in this case?

Let us remember that Diesel communicated that evening with only three people - Grace and Lukeman and the steward. They all had a 100% alibi, confirmed by many other people. And as it turned out later, none of the passengers or crew members knew that the great inventor was traveling on the ferry - his name was not on the list! In addition, it was necessary to find the body and examine it for the possibility of a violent death, since the study of the cabin, corridor and deck did not provide any evidence that could lead to the suspicion of murder.

Looking ahead, let's say that the body was never found. True, a little later, several Belgian fishermen told the police that in the early morning of September 30, 1913, they went fishing and caught the body of a well-dressed gentleman at the mouth of the Scheldt River. After consulting, the fishermen decided to take him to Ghent, but they were prevented by a sudden storm. Deciding that the spirits of the sea were angry because they had robbed the elements of its rightful prey, the fishermen threw the body back into the waves.

However, before this, two rings were removed from the drowned man’s finger, which the skipper handed over to the police. These rings were presented to the inventor's son, who admitted that they were very similar to those worn by his father. However, there were no engravings on them that could accurately identify the owner (one was an engagement ring, the other was a ring with a stone, but without the owner’s name). The jeweler from whom Diesel bought this ring acknowledged his work, but noticed that many people ordered similar rings from him.

So, as you can see, it is impossible to say for sure that the drowned man caught by Belgian fishermen during his lifetime was the inventor of the diesel engine. Therefore, no one still knows where the remains of Rudolf Diesel are buried. And the circumstances of his disappearance over the past nearly hundred years have not become clearer. The inventor is still listed as missing by the German police.

As for the version of Diesel’s murder by competitors or intelligence agencies, it, like all hypotheses related to the so-called “conspiracy theory,” has one typical drawback. It is completely incomprehensible why it was necessary to kill the inventor, whose “brainchild” had long been produced in all factories in the world, including British ones. The design of the engine was known to thousands of engineers and technicians who could assemble it themselves and, if necessary, improve it (by the way, it was with their help that Churchill was still able to modernize the English fleet). It only made sense to kill Diesel before the engine went into mass production.

In addition, it is difficult to suspect hired killers or intelligence officers of such blatant unprofessionalism - after all, it turns out that the person was eliminated in such a way that the next day the whole world knew about it. Why was it necessary to put on this whole ridiculous performance? It would have been much easier to kill Diesel before boarding the Dresden and have his body found in the port slums with signs of robbery. Then no one would doubt that the inventor became a victim of his own carelessness - after all, the robbers of the Antwerp port were notorious.

In general, if you carefully study some of the details of this story, you will find out that Diesel’s disappearance was primarily beneficial... to Diesel himself. His financial affairs at that moment were really in a deplorable state, everything was heading towards court and debtor's prison. Maybe the brilliant inventor simply decided to hide from creditors in such an interesting way? That is, in fact, he did not board any ferry (which is why his name was not on the list), did not have dinner with friends and did not ask the steward to wake him up. He discussed the testimony with friends in advance, and the steward could well have been bribed.

This explains the fact that besides these three, no one remembered that Diesel was present on the ferry (the same steward served at dinner) - and another incomprehensible thing. The fact is that not a single item was found in the inventor’s cabin that could be said with certainty that it belonged to Rudolf Diesel - no documents, no wallet, no notebook, no drawings. The found watch was without the owner's name, as were the cloak and hat. The fact that these are Diesel's things is known only from the testimony of Grace and Lukeman - but their price, if you follow this version, is very low.

There is another interesting point - after the disappearance of the inventor, his family was able to cope with financial difficulties and pay off debts. Afterwards, his family said that they sold some of the inventor's patents. However, if we remember that at that time there was a fierce legal war over them, it is unlikely that anyone would have bought them at a high price. So where did the funds come from for a family that had lost its breadwinner?

So, if we put all the facts together, it turns out that the great inventor could well have staged his own disappearance. He spread rumors that he was going to England, instructed two of his acquaintances who were actually going there on how to behave, and they, in turn, bribed the steward. The latter brought several things into an empty cabin, left a hat and cloak on the deck, and then reported the disappearance of the passenger.

And although many later said that in the evening they saw a third passenger in the company of Grace and Lukeman, no one (except, again, the steward) knew who it was. That is, perhaps there was some third acquaintance of the inventor on the ship, who “played” the role of Diesel, and then simply went to the bottom and did not give evidence to the police. As for the discovery of the Belgian fishermen, the rings were identified by Diesel's son - and he was clearly privy to his father's plans. In fact, they could belong to anyone - and it is not at all a fact that their owner was fished out of the sea on September 30, and not earlier.

It is also possible that later Diesel, under a false name, left for some country and got a job as an engineer at one of his factories. Perhaps he settled in Russia - the inventor had long-standing business relations with our country. And when he helped his family pay off their debts, he most likely continued to work on improving his engine - but under a different name.

sources

http://www.pravda.ru/science/useful/15-08-2012/1123074-rudolf_disel-2/

http://www.calend.ru/person/2676/

http://www.automotivehistory.ru/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=85&Itemid=129

But look what else I’ll tell you almost

He was born in Paris on March 18, 1858 and was distinguishable from the Parisian gamens only by the emphasized neatness of his poor clothes. He loved Paris and knew it very well: his bookbinder father sent him with books to the most incredible addresses. They lived “like thousands of other Parisians, for whom today’s work is tomorrow’s bread. And they spent Sundays like everyone else - in the Bois de Vincennes and, like everyone else, they rode boats and had breakfast on the green grass. And no one ever remembered that the bookbinder is German and his children are Germans.

But when the war began, they remembered. The mediocrity of Bazin and MacMahon turned into a wave of wild chauvinism in the capital. Gamen turned into a "basha" - a German pig. He was only 12 years old, but he already understood how scary it was. You can persecute a man for his god - he chose it himself. You can be persecuted for your beliefs - he came to them himself. But if you were born German, no prayers to the gods and no oaths to the leaders will correct anything, and is it really your fault?

Then, as an adult, he thought that he had two homelands: France and Germany. And he didn't have one...

Le Havre, a sailing ship with refugees, timid, cautiously still German speech, white English shores. A few months later, his father persuades Rudolph to leave his starving family and go to his uncle in Germany, go to Augsburg to study. And he goes. From the age of 13, he is deprived of, if not material, then moral support provided by his family. Independence disciplines and dries him out. He is pedantic, scrupulous, modest and stubborn. Good German zeal matures in him. Perhaps out of loneliness, he became the first student of a real school, and then a polytechnic school, was kindly treated by a visiting professor and invited to Munich to the Higher Technical School.

In Munich in the spring of 1878, these forty-five fateful, life-defining lecture minutes happened when Professor Linde, the creator of refrigerators, spoke about the thermodynamic cycle of the great Sadi Carnot, about an amazing process that promised to convert up to 70 percent of the calorific value of consumed fuel into useful work. In the margins of his student notebook, Rudolf quickly noted for memory: “To study the possibility of using the isotherm in practice.” I wrote it for memory, not yet knowing that this is a program for many years, the content of the entire future existence. Carnot's spirit haunts him like a ghost. He already sees his car, he even described it in the brochure; he finally received a patent for his dream. He will learn to control combustion, increase the compression in the cylinder to 250 atmospheres, abandon water cooling, coal dust will power his engine, but most importantly, he will turn the Carnot isotherm into metal, into reality. This was his program. He did not fulfill a single point.

Everything turned out to be more complicated. And if Diesel could already imagine how difficult it was to get high pressure, how difficult it was to make coal dust burn, then he did not know then how difficult it was to get money from Krupp, how difficult it was to make others get excited about his idea. Sometimes he fell into despair, finding solace only in the melodies of his beloved Wagner. He wrote screaming letters to his wife: “... I can bear everything that they think of me, the only thing unbearable is when they think you’re a fool!” And he continued to work. He got up very early and slept a little after lunch, artificially turning the day into two maximally busy working days. In July 1893 he made a prototype engine. During the first tests, the indicator shatters into pieces, and Diesel miraculously remains alive. The testers' protocol read: "Consider that the implementation of the work process on this unfinished machine is impossible." Impossible? He grits his teeth and moves on. On February 17, 1894, testing of a new, redesigned machine began. Diesel did not notice its first idling, he only saw that old Linden, the fitter, suddenly silently pulled the oily cap off his head. At that moment, diesel was born.

Now he lived the hectic life of a merchant. Pot-bellied suitcases with colorful stickers did not stand in the closet for long. Nuremberg, Berlin, Bar-le-Duc, Fabry, Leipzig, Ghent. A mixture of a triumphal parade and market bustle. He felt like a winner: “I have so far surpassed everything that existed before me in the field of mechanical engineering that I can safely say that I am at the forefront of technical progress...” Congresses, dinners, speeches, a luxurious villa in Munich, oil fields in Galicia, three million gold rubles earned in one year...

But he did not do what he promised: his engine did not consume coal dust, as the big owners of the Ruhr had counted on, but liquid fuel. From the heights of his triumph, he did not notice how the spears of the great war, the war of Coal and Oil, converged above his head.

Best of the day

The case grew like a snowball, but there was no peace. Endless hints, attacks, attacks: “Diesel didn’t invent anything... He just assembled what he invented... He’s not an engineer...” Fleeing from evil whispers, he rushes around Europe in his new car, unable to stop anywhere, unable to able to continue working. Two triumphant trips to America. Again banquets, matches... In this noise and din, he quietly asked Edison:

Do you ever think about death? “I’m doing business, not metaphysics,” answered the American.

How exhausted, tormented, hunted, and how at the same time calm is this tall, impeccably dressed, handsome man, already turning gray at 55 years old, in a strict pince-nez, a strictly raised snow-white collar, a strict tie! Here he is with a group of engineers aboard the Dresden. They are sailing to London. Great dinner. Great cigar. His companions escorted him to his cabin. He shook their hands:

Good night. Till tomorrow.

In the morning, an untouched bed was found in his cabin, and in his travel bag - a gold watch, which he never parted with.

And two days later, at the mouth of the Scheldt in Vlissingen, fishermen found the body of a well-dressed man. They picked him up and swam home. But the sea seemed to go wild. The fishermen were shady people and thought that Scheldt did not want to give them her victim. And they threw the corpse into the waves. Thus Rudolf Diesel disappeared forever. But diesels remain...