Rudolf Diesel

Rudolf Diesel developed the idea of the compression ignition engine[?] during the last decade of the 19th century, receiving a patent for the device on February 23, 1893 and building a functional prototype in early 1897 while working at the MAN plant at Augsburg. This 'Diesel engine' was named after him. Originally it was known as the "oil engine".

Diesel died in 1913 in mysterious circumstances: He disappeared on a cross- channel ferry over 10 months prior to the outbreak of World War I.