Rudolf Diesel’s engine is set in motion
In 1892, engineer and inventor Rudolf Diesel filed the first patent application for a “new rational heat engine”. Despite his insights, the engineers at Maschinenfabrik Augsburg (later MAN), with whom Diesel worked, needed a lot of trial and error to produce the first functioning diesel engine on 28 January 1897.
The new invention soon went into mass production, and a car powered by the peanut oil-fuelled model even won a prize at the 1900 World Exhibition in Paris. Soon, lorries, locomotives and even ships were powered by diesel. Only time will tell if biodiesel engines have a future.
About the Deutschlandmuseum
An immersive and innovative experience museum about 2000 years of German history