An innovation in engine construction

Rudolf Diesel Medaille Quelle: Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 An innovation in engine construction
Jan 28 1897
Rudolf Diesel Medal Source: Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

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.

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2000 Jahre
12 Epochen
1 Stunde