The Fascinating Life and Strange Death of Rudolph Diesel

[jporter]

German engineering is amazing. I just bought a VW Jetta TDI to
go along with my 2000 Honda Insight. Going diesel for the first
time, I was curious about its origins. I had no idea that there had
actually been a man named "Diesel" who had come up with the
the idea of the "oil engine," and that originally he had intended
for it to be run on vegetable oil. He was, apparently, a troubled
genius who lived and worked around the turn of the last century,
and died under mysterious circumstances on the eve of WW I,
while  crossing the English Channel on a business trip involving
a production facility in England which had licensed his design.

There are several speculations on the nature of his death. Some
claim it was suicide, others, murder/conspiracy, but it's clear
to me that he had an encounter with a certain mysterious
lady on board that channel ferry- a tourist-  making  her way to
Sweden on the cusp of the Great War.

Read a short Wikipedia synopsis (lousy translation) here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Diesel

As for the Jetta- great car. If I were in Germany I would definitely
try for an "Elsbett conversion" so I could run it off of pure vegetable
oil. As it is, I'll have to settle for biodiesel, which at least I can
make in my own garage.

Any other p-listers experimenting with biodiesel, give me a holler
offlist.

jody