Rudolph Diesel

Rudolph Diesel, inventor of the diesel engine

In 1893, he published a paper describing an engine with combustion within a cylinder, the internal combustion engine. In 1894, he filed for a patent for his new invention, dubbed the diesel engine. Diesel was almost killed by his engine when it exploded - however, his engine was the first that proved that fuel could be ignited without a spark. He operated his first successful engine in 1897.