Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Diesel 10 August

On this day, the 10th of August, in 1893 the deisel engine ran succesfully for the first time in Augsburg, southern Germany. Rudolf Diesel developed the idea of the compression ignition engine and went on to build a functional prototype in early 1897. The 'Diesel engine' was named after him. Originally it was known as the "oil engine".
Being something of a visionary, Deisel said: "The diesel engine can be fed with vegetable oils and would help considerably in the development of agriculture of the countries which use it" He predicted that: "The use of vegetable oils for engine fuels may seem insignificant today. But such oils may become in course of time as important as petroleum and the coal tar products of the present time."
On 29 September 1913, Diesel boarded the "SS Dresden", a cross-channel ferry, to attend the opening of a factory in Ipswich; however, he never made it and his body was found a couple of days later by local fishermen. As was usual at the time, the seamen only took his belongings and threw the body back into the sea. It is suspected that because Diesel decided to allow anyone to purchase a license for his engine patents, including the rivals of Imperial Germany, he was murdered by German agents and tossed into the North Sea.
Nevertheless, because of Rudolph's clever idea, the 10th of August is marked in the calendars of engine mechanics the world over as International Biodiesel Day - an idea we may yet be glad of.

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