Life under pressure

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POWER TRIP: Rudolph Diesel begrugingly co-operated with MAN and Krupp to develop the power plant that would change the machine world forever.

His name is his legacy, but Rudolph Diesel was a man said to be as explosive as his engines.

German streets have been buzzing this year, as truck company MAN hold a string of celebrations for its 250th anniversary.

Most people know the name from the front of trucks, but few realise the role the Ausburg-based company had in developing the diesel engine.

In the 1890s, the then company boss Heinrich von Buz, became interested in the plans for an invention known as the ‘rational heat engine' being developed by one Rudolph Diesel.

The firm gave Diesel some money and use of its engineering facilities, but early results were not promising.

The necessary pressure could not be achieved. Diesel wanted to compress - and thus heat - air in a cylinder with such great pressure that only a tiny amount of fuel would be needed to generate an explosion and drive the cylinder piston.

But the pressure Diesel hoped to attain could not be done at the end of the 19th century. The first engines exploded in quite spectacular fashion. Diesel, as he admitted himself, had based his calculations college-book theory, rather than real-world engineering. This, in turn gave him problems with his backers.

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