Rudi-HQ

Rudi-HQ is named for Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel — the engineer who designed his engine to run on peanut oil so farmers could power their own equipment without depending on the oil industry.

Diesel was born in Paris in 1858 to Bavarian immigrant parents and studied thermodynamics in Munich, where he became fixated on building an engine far more efficient than the steam and gasoline engines of the era. He patented his compression-ignition design in 1893, and by the early 1900s it had made him wealthy and internationally famous — his engine could run on a variety of fuels, including the peanut oil he demonstrated with at the 1900 World's Fair.

In September 1913, Diesel boarded the mail steamer SS Dresden in Antwerp, bound for Harwich, England, to attend a meeting of the Consolidated Diesel Manufacturing company. After dinner aboard the ship, he retired to his cabin and was never seen alive again. Ten days later, the crew of a Dutch boat recovered a badly decomposed body from the North Sea; rather than bring it aboard, they retrieved personal items — including a pill case, wallet, and pocketknife — which Diesel's son later identified as his father's. The cause of his disappearance was never conclusively established, and it has been debated ever since: theories range from suicide, brought on by mounting financial and health troubles, to an accidental fall overboard, to speculation that he was murdered to prevent his engine technology — by then of interest to naval and military planners on the eve of World War I — from reaching a rival power.