Disappearance of Diesel.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 31 July 1914, Page 8

Disappearance of Diesel.

! Dr. Diesel, the inventor of the oil-engine bearing his name, is likely to remain an unfathomable mys- '. tery. The doctor was on his way jto London from Ghent to attend ; the annual general meeting of the I shareholders of the Consolidated i Diesel Engine Manufacturers, and was accompanied by Mr. George : Carels, a director of the company. I They were on board the Great Eastern Railway's steamer "Dresden," and at about ten o'clock at night j they separated and retired—as was ; supposed—to their respective cabins. :In the morning-, when the steamer I was near 'Harwich, it was discoveried that Dr. Diesel's bed had not been slept in, although his cloth- ; ing- was found to he arranged in a ; manner that suggested that he had ! prepared to go to bed. A bunch ,of keys hang from his handbag, and Iris watch was placed in an elevated . position, so that he might be able to see the time as he lay in bed. A thorough search of the ship was made, but without result. At the meeting of shareholders, the chairman of the company expressed the , view that Dr. Diesel had fallen overboard, and added, "We can hardly hope to see him again." Dr. Diesel, who was fifty-six years of ! age, was born in Paris of German ' parents. When about twenty-six j years old he was, as a student, I listening to a lecture at Munich, when the idea of an oil internal j combustion engine seized him, and |he at once began working it out. jlt was not until the year 1897 that |he produced his first reliable machine, since which time he was continually improving it, until the remarkable engine to which he has given his name has revolutionised power production, enabling engineers to run machines on land and sea with wonderful economy on fuels that once were merely the waste products of the gasworks.