The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genius, Power, And Deception On The Eve of World War I, Brunt- B+

                       Rudolf Diesel's "engine was the most disruptive technology in history." When he went missing on a Channel crossing in Sept. 1913, there were various theories about his death. One was suicide, and another was that his enemies had arranged his demise. He was a genius and an idealist who hoped that his small and efficient engine would change the world - and it did. This is his story.

                       His family was Bavarian, but he was born in Paris on March 18, 1858. His innate curiosity was evident at an early age, when he spent his free time at a technical museum sketching all of its exhibits. War in 1870 saw the Diesel's flee to London because of the anti-German feelings spreading throughout Paris. The family sent Rudolf to Augsburg when a relative offered to board him so that he could attend school in Germany. Thanks to a few businesses centered there, the ancient city was "a hotbed for rising engineering talent." In 1875, he graduated from the Augsburg Polytechnic School with the highest grades in the school's history. He was awarded a scholarship to attend university in Munich. He studied thermodynamics and became "obsessed with engine inefficiency." Once again, he graduated with the highest grades ever.

                   He went to work for a German firm in Paris, where he met and married Louise Flasch, a German governess. Although he was working in refrigeration, he continued to be focused on building a small efficient engine that would provide opportunities in rural areas away from the big cities and their massive industrial plants. Rudolf, Louise, and their three children moved to Berlin 1890. He resigned from his job and received a patent in 1892 for the 'Process for Producing Motive Power From the Combustion of Fuels.' "What Diesel theorized was a frightening threat to the established modes of power of the day and the engineers who designed them." Rudolf obtained the support he needed to build his engine from Heinrich Buz and Friedrich Krupp, two of Germany's leading industrialists. The engine, which used compressed air instead of a flame for ignition, was revealed to the world in Feb. 1897. It was now up to the industrial world to decide the engine's uses. It soon became apparent that it would replace the steam engine as the leading propulsion mechanism in the world. Augustus Busch paid Diesel one million marks for the rights to manufacture and distribute the engine in America and Canada. The Nobel Family created a venture with Rudolf to encompass the  Russian market. He was now a wealthy man. The technology spread around the world quickly and was highly desired because it did not involve burning petroleum.  However, the "internationally networked approach of scientists that Diesel envisioned soon gave way to the proprietary, militaristic approach of independent and militaristic nations." 

                Rudolf returned to the laboratory to work with his licensees to make certain that the engine was commercially viable. He triumphed at the 1900 Paris World Fair with an 80 hp engine that ran on peanut oil, was extremely quiet and gave off virtually no emissions. Rudolf's success was a threat to the burgeoning petroleum industry in America, where the internal combustion engine was growing in popularity. At home, Wilhelm II concluded that a submarine was the best strategic weapon to compete with Britain, and that a Diesel engine was the only way to power an undersea boat. "A frenzy of development work began to advance the military application of the engine." In Augsburg, Maschinenfabrik (M.A.N.) was leading the world in engines for submarines and would build almost 600 during the Great War. They were so superior to everyone else's so that the US Navy took another twenty years to match their engines. A Danish firm built the 'Selandia,' a substantial commercial vehicle, without steam and only Diesel engines that so impressed the First Lord of the Admiralty, Churchill, that he began the conversion of the Royal Navy's engines. 

             As Germany and Britain continued their manic arms race, Diesel went about his business traveling the world and working on the adoption of his engine. The year 1913 saw not only its adoption for maritime use, but also the conversion of America's railroads to Diesel engines and the first tests of the motor in an automobile. Rudolf Diesel could not have been more successful. On the night of Sept. 29, he boarded the SS Dresden to sail from Ghent to England. The next morning, a neatly folded coat and a hat were found on the deck. Rudolf was gone. The first posited theory was that his fall was accidental. Suicide was not seriously considered because he was healthy and happy. More sinister theories arose suggesting both that agents of the Kaiser or the petroleum industry disposed of him.

            The author believes that Rudolf was working with, and cooperated with, a British ruse. He deplored Prussian militarism and did not approve of the Kaiser's ambitions. Before he left home, he gifted scientific materials to a museum, and showed his son where all of his important papers were. The family quickly accepted the suicide theory. That he was working in Canada became the story for a while, until the British press stopped writing about him. The author suggests that the government suppressed the newspapers. In Canada, there was a secretive effort at the local Vickers plant that led to the successful construction of Britain's first submarines. Vickers also obtained a number of patents that were markedly more sophisticated than the skill level of its engineering department.

            This is a very good book and one worth reading, if only to better appreciate how extraordinary the man's engine was, and still is. As for Churchill spiriting him off to Canada, I'm not overwhelmed. Some of the evidence is interesting. But, it is hard to believe that one of the most famous men in the world could disappear into a shipyard in Canada without a word of it appearing for over a century.