Rudolf Diesel

Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel (English:, German: [ˈʁuːdɔlf ˈkʀɪsti̯an kaʁl ˈdiːzl̩]; 18 March 1858 – 29 September 1913) was a German inventor and mechanical engineer. He is best known for inventing the diesel engine, which burns diesel fuel. Both are named for him.

Early life and education

Diesel was born on 18 March 1858 at 38 Rue Notre-Dame-de-Nazareth in Paris, France, the second of three children of Elise (née Strobel) and Theodor Diesel. His parents were Bavarian immigrants living in Paris. Theodor Diesel, a bookbinder by trade, left his hometown of Augsburg, Bavaria, in 1848. He met his wife, a daughter of a Nuremberg merchant, in Paris in 1855 and became a leather goods manufacturer there.

Shortly after his birth, Diesel was given away to a Vincennes farmer family, where he spent his first nine months. When he was returned to his family, they moved into a flat at 49 Rue de la Fontaine-au-Roi. At the time, the Diesel family suffered from financial difficulties, thus young Rudolf Diesel had to work in his father's workshop and deliver leather goods to customers using a barrow. He attended a Protestant-French school and soon became interested in social questions and technology. Being a very good student, 12-year-old Diesel received the Société pour l'Instruction Elémentaire bronze medal and had plans to enter Ecole Primaire Supérieure in 1870.

At the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War the same year, his family were deported to England, settling in London, where Diesel attended an English-speaking school. Before the war's end, however, Diesel's mother sent 12-year-old Rudolf to Augsburg to live with his aunt and uncle, Barbara and Christoph Barnickel, to become fluent in German and to visit the Königliche Kreis-Gewerbeschule (Royal County Vocational College), where his uncle taught mathematics. He was enrolled at the Technische Hochschule (Technical High School).