Description
This is the story of Rudolf Diesel, the German inventor who created an internal-combustion engine that conquered maximal thermal effi- ciency, but whose obsession almost killed him. Young Diesel (Willy Birgel) dreams of becoming an engineer. He builds an ammonia steam engine, but it fails to produce the power he seeks. Diesel knows the engine he envisions will revolutionize the world. Several patents later— and now financed by industrialist Heinrich von Buz—Diesel is allowed to test his ideas. Von Buz enlists the additional support of the Krupp firm. Diesel atomizes the fuel and it works, and it’s almost three times as powerful as a steam engine. It ends with an impressive montage of tractors, trucks, airplanes, ships and submarines—powered by Diesel’s engines. DVD, 1942, B&W, German dialogue, English subtitles, 90 minutes, #1004, $25. (NTSC Region 0 encoding—entire world.)
