Was Rudolf Diesel One of The First Oil Company Victims?

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/img/ia50e8ff30.jpg[/atsimg]

Hello ladies and Gentlemen,

As most of you know Rudolf Diesel is the inventor of the diesel engine(known as the “Oil engine” at the time) in 1892( the first running prototype was buit in 1897). He designed it and patented it to run on peanut oil/vegetable oil. Can you believe that? An attempt to break away from petroleum run transportation at the same time Gas engines started to become popular. Basically he saw the problems with steam engines and the loss of power due to its inefficiency and began working on an efficient engine that ran on a cheap and renewable fuel. He is quoted in saying

"The use of vegetable oils for engine fuels may seem insignificant today. But such oils may become, in course of time, as important as petroleum and the coal tar products of the present time."

and

“The diesel engine can be fed with vegetable oils and would help considerably in the development of agriculture of the countries which use it.”

Source
Okay so we all know that Mr. Ford was the Father of the automobile industry and he made his products so they would run on petroleum products ie gasoline/petrol. We also know how important and influential he was in business, but also how important and controlling his friends were, especially in the oil business. So we have this booming and growing new company set to take over the personal transportation niche and the forecast of billions was right there for the grabbing. Then we have this man who invented a different style of engine that was cheaper to make, more efficient, maybe not as fast, but also ran on a cheaper and replenishable resource that would make money flow to the farmers across the country. Keep this in mind, if you will, as we go over the last moments of Rudolf Diesels life(as far as we know).

The year is 1913, September 29th to be exact and World War I(known as the Great War at the time) was about to get underway. England and Germany were in an arms race as both were attempting to build large amounts of battleships as fast as they possibly could. The tension in the air was felt by everyone. Diesel was going to sign a contract with the Consolidated Diesel Manufacturing company in the hopes of selling his patent to England giving them rights to his invention. He booked passage aboard the S.S. Dresden(a post office/passenger steamer) to cross the English Chanel and went aboard in Antwerp. He requested a wake up at 6:15am and retired to his cabin at approximately 10pm. This was the last time he was seen alive.
His cabin was found empty and there was evidence that he had not slept in it, his nightshirt was laid out neatly on his bed and his watch was on the nightstand so he could see the time from a laying position. After further search his over coat and hat were discovered beneath the afterdeck railing. It was ruled a suicide by leaping off the ship. He was about to sign a contract for, what is assumed, a great deal of money and he asked for an early wake up, and there was no note leading to suicide. This is not what a suicidal man does. If he were to be considering suicide, I would think< he would not have asked for a wake up and just let it be found he was missing and or would have written a note, not to mention the financial gain he was about to receive.

Ten days later an unrecognizable body was found floating in the North Sea near Norway by the crew of the Coertsen( a Dutch boat). The body was so decomposed identification was left to the personal effects found on it and it was put back into the Sea(which was the tradition). Among the effects were, a pill case, wallet, ID card, pocket knife, and an eyeglass case. On October 13th Rudolfs Son, Eugen, identified them as belonging to his Father. A short time later Martha, Rudolfs Wife, opened a package that he had given to her prior to leaving with the instructions not to open it until the following week. It contained 200,000 German Marks. Did he give this to her out of having a bad feeling his life was in danger or did he know he was going to end it or did he disappear into the sunset under his own volition never to be seen or heard from again?

Looking at who would want him dead we have a few directions to look. First it could have been hired thugs from the oil companies sent to distinguish the chance that their product(petroleum) would not be the first choice in fuels. It could have been the Germans attempting to stop the transaction with England(the first Volkswagens ran on diesel) or it could have stemmed from a patent dispute with Akroyd-Stuart's compression ignition. I leave it up to you to decide. Thanks for reading.

Good fine on the story. I agree with your reasoning that it wasnt suicide. The story of death of the man who invented the Diesel engine has been kept convenienty quiet in the history books. Who do you think was the most likely suspect for his killing?

reply to post by AthlonSavage


I think I might do some more digging into who was running things and going against his invention within the oil companies. Who knows maybe I can dig up some possible names of suspects that could have put out the hit. I might even start digging into the ships manifest as well.

Given his heritage of noisy, stinking, polluting diesel engines, I'm tempted to opine that he deserved what he got. I just hate the cult of diesel pickups, noisy, stinking, always in your way.

reply to post by Lazarus Short


you do realize you are talking about what the oil companies turned it into right? If it were the way he designed it and used the vegetable oil instead of petroleum it would not be like that. It would be more efficient, cleaner, and renewable so chalk that one up to the oil companies as well not Diesel himself.

Talk about conveniently omitted from the history books!

And that was kind of an ignorant point about the "polluting diesel engines" considering Diesel intended them to function on vegetable oils, and it's the petro-companies (and probably those supporting the traditional gas combustion engine) who influenced the "stinking polluting" modern, corrupted versions of the Diesel engines mentioned above.

Not sure it would surprise me to learn Ford had something to do with it. If you're an entrepreneur, Ford is possibly someone to be looked up to and admired. Hell of a business man. Take-charge, don't-understand-"no" kind of guy. Which I suppose makes it all the easier to suspect him.

I find the circumstances as outlined in the OP to be highly suspicious. The one thing which, to me, does seem to possibly indicate suicide is the money for the wife. With no explanation for it, that does seem a bit odd. I would assume 200,000 marks was quite a lot of money, no? Why would he leave it for her in the first place, for one? Why with the instruction not to open it until the following week, for two?

And if it truly was suicide, why no note?

And who kills themselves just before signing a huge, and possibly life changing contract? If he's the kind of guy who would leave his wife that much money, I assume he wanted her taken care of. I would further assume his present and future family would have been better "taken care of" if whatever pending deals were completed.

Hope this thread gets a lot more Flags, as I think this is one piece of uncommon history that should be considered. IMO the auto and oil industries (almost hand-in-hand, of course) are some of the more corrupt in this world. Only really surpassed by banking, pharmaceuticals, and prison-industrial, in roughly that order....

Maybe he wasn't killed, Maybe he was an angel who gave man a peaceful alternative to what was coming.

Who would fight and go to war for cornfields. No one.

After his duty was done and the coming war over the horizon, He left. The floating body was just the angel in a different shape, Knowing he would be tossed back.

Brazil is a good example how their biodiesel runs almost every vehicle.

Their agriculture and techniques are so advanced that Brazilians will never starve or lack transportion.

So who's the third world.

America runs out of oil, you'll all be riding horse and buggy, Brazilians will be in their cars.

Investigators re-constructing the death of Diesel at age fifty-five found a plethora of head-scratching clues. For instance, how and why was Diesel's empty cabin locked from the inside? Was his fall from the deck of the ship into the cold waters of the English Channel an accident, suicide or murder? Why were German military intelligence officers on board the ship and why were they making the crossing from Antwerp to England only to return to Germany within forty-eight hours of setting foot on the British Isles? These and other questions have largely remained unanswered in the ninety-six years since his death.

www.helium.com...

Rudolf Diesel, who invented the diesel engine, probably was bumped off by the German secret service. His turn-of-the-century engine was key to the new German weapon, the U-boat.

www.forbes.com...

reply to post by randomname


Good points, Thanks for posting.

reply to post by iwilliam


Good find, Something about it still screams a little too simple and easily found explanation for something still open if that makes sense. It could very well have been the Germans but who were they actually working for. We must keep in mind the central banks were in full swing in all the countries involved at the time and they were connected deeply to the Oil companies(see my Global Banking Thread www.abovetopsecret.com... ).

Originally posted by Lazarus Short
Given his heritage of noisy, stinking, polluting diesel engines, I'm tempted to opine that he deserved what he got. I just hate the cult of diesel pickups, noisy, stinking, always in your way.

Different people, different taste.
I love the smell of diesel.

Here in Germany diesel is very common and they perform just as well as petrol engines do or even better.


Older diesel engines run on plant oil as well. A friend of mine has a 2000 VW Caddy and we mix the diesel with plant oil in order to save money. It runs just as well on it. The only negative side effect is that the car smells like an overheated frying pan.

BTW, never knew Rudolph Diesel died that way.

Nice thread lots of good info.

Originally posted by Lazarus Short
Given his heritage of noisy, stinking, polluting diesel engines, I'm tempted to opine that he deserved what he got. I just hate the cult of diesel pickups, noisy, stinking, always in your way.

The next thing the intolerant DoGooders will want to ban!!! next to guns ,ugly dogs ,motorcycles,old army trucks ,crossbows ,bows,air rifles, hmmm what else ?? 4x4s in general ,any recreational off road vehicle ,anything that doesnt look ''NICE'' to keep old bags like Feintein ,Janet Napolitano,Pelosi and all the other feminist OLD BAGS

reply to post by Agarta


well im a common sense kind of guy and that just doesnt add up. maybe they gave the man an advance with stipulation that if it didnt work or wasnt what they wanted they would ask for money back and so he offed himself to keep the money? or maybe if it was advanced to him it tipped him off something was fishy and thats why he feared for life and gave it to wife in shoebox.

i dont know. i do know most oil companies own tons of patents for better running enginces than we have now and better ways to burn gas (such as fuel injectors 40 years late) and ford, well a sketchy man at best.

reply to post by randomname


Any proof of Brazil's cars running on biofuel?

Not calling out people, but just want to see some sources on how they got it to work.