The Diesel engine: a turning point in the history of technology
Comité des Travaux Historiques et Scientifiques –
Institut de l’Ecole Nationale des Chartes, France
Abstract
The creation of the diesel engine at the end of the nineteenth century is an achievement of primary importance in the history of technology. This is not only due to the role that this combustion engine plays as an energy source in several fields, including transport, but also because of the scientific-technical approach that led to its creation. It is an achievement having as its starting point the trial of the implementation of the thermodynamic Carnot cycle, an ideal cycle, i.e. of maximum efficiency, which we continue to do today everything possible to get closer. The way in which Rudolf Diesel created the engine that bears his name is a very striking example of the creation of an engine that works according to a thermodynamic cycle that has been previously established and corrected following practical tests. The appearance of the diesel engine highlighted the entry of technical change into a new phase, that of technoscience, “Technikwissenschaft”, as it is called in German. A mixture of theory and practice, technoscience is imprinting on today's world an evolution that continues to accelerate. It takes place in a process that starts from research to lead to development, through invention and innovation, the latter being the socialization of invention. I have chosen to address this subject not only because of the intrinsic interest, for the history of science and technology, that the creation and evolution of the diesel engine presents, but also because Romania was one of the pioneer countries in the use of this category of engines. And, last but not least, I also chose it knowing that the Transilvania University of Brasov, my alma mater, is a university involved in the promotion of the history of technology, an essential discipline for engineering training.
