Method of and apparatus for converting heat into work
- Filed
- 26 August 1892
- Granted
- 16 July 1895
- Assignee
- None listed
Mechanical engineering
Rudolf Diesel: inventions and patents
Known for Pressure-ignited heat engine (diesel engine)Nationality French-born, described in his 1895 US patent as a subject of the King of Bavaria residing at Berlin18 March 1858 to 29 September 1913
Rudolf Diesel was a French-born engineer who developed a pressure-ignited heat engine, the diesel engine. The National Inventors Hall of Fame says his prime model first ran under its own power at Augsburg on 10 August 1893, after about 13 years of work. He received US Patent 542,846 in 1895 for a method of and apparatus for converting heat into work.1,2
Patents
Inventions
- Diesel engine, 1893. A compression ignition engine. The prime model was a single 10-foot iron cylinder with a flywheel at its base.1
Recognition
- 1976 Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame1
Sources
- National Inventors Hall of Fame, Rudolf Diesel (accessed 2026-10-27)
- Google Patents, US542846A Method of and apparatus for converting heat into work (accessed 2026-10-27)