Full transcript
0:00The story of the man behind the diesel engine
0:03and why he'd be turning in his grave.
0:11Franco-German engineer Rudolf Diesel started by designing fridges.
0:17But in 1892, he patented a revolutionary compression ignition
0:22engine known as the diesel engine.
0:25Unlike steam engines or early petrol engines, it worked by squashing air
0:30inside a cylinder, making it hot enough to ignite the fuel
0:34and create a powerful explosion.
0:39It was a very simple and economic system.
0:45It was invented to run on a variety of fuels including coal dust
0:49and vegetable oils.
0:52One of his early devices was demonstrated
0:54at the 1900 world's fair in Paris.
0:58It ran on peanut oil and won a Grand Prix.
1:03His invention was more eco-friendly and power efficient
1:07than alternatives at the time.
1:09And farmers could literally grow their own fuel.
1:13Diesel became an evangelist for the use of vegetable oils as fuel.
1:18In 1912 he said...
1:34Diesel's new engine made him a millionaire
1:37by the time he reached his 40's. But his life, ended tragically.
1:43In 1913, while traveling from Belgium to England on a steam ship,
1:48he drowned at sea.
1:49There was strange circumstances surrounding his disappearance
1:53and death which encouraged conspiracy theories.
1:56While some people assumed he had killed himself,
1:59others thought he'd been murdered by foreign agents.
2:03There's little evidence however, and the case remains unsolved.
2:07After Diesel's death, crude oil became more widely available
2:11and his engine was adapted to use petrol as its only source of fuel.
2:16This type of petrol became known as petrol diesel or simply, diesel.
2:23The diesel engine went on to revolutionise the transport system
2:27after the First World War - powering trains, boats and buses.
2:32The first diesel lorries appeared on roads in the 1920s and '30s.
2:37The first production diesel car in the world was a Citroën Rosalie
2:41introduced in 1933.
2:44Until very recently, half of all new cars sold in Europe were diesel.
2:50But diesel's image has taken a big knock with the scandal over
2:54cheating in emissions tests.
2:56There's also more evidence and awareness about the potential
3:00health problems diesel can cause.
3:03Sales in Europe dropped 20 percent in 2018.
3:08Many cities in the world have banned or imposed heavy tolls
3:11on diesel vehicles.
3:13Maybe we should have stuck to Diesel's peanut engine.
3:21Thanks for watching! :)
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