Archive
Algae Fuels Hopes for Life Without Big Oil!

Diesel’s Vision
![]() |
At one time, Diesel power was poised as an alternative to big Coal and Oil…
|
At the World’s Fair of 1900 in Paris France, Rudolph Diesel demonstrated the virtues of his new pressure-ignited “rational heat motor” which came to bear his name to the world then, and has done so to the present day. We’ve come to also know Rudolf Diesel as an eminent mechanical and thermal engineer, a multi-lingual and knowledgeable patron of the Arts, and not least of all a highly progressive Social Theorist. Although his legacy is inestimable, his rise to fame was as quick as it was brief…and leaves us with some unanswered questions about how Diesel’s vision may have offered us a different world than the one ruled by Oil and Big Banks.
Hemp Diesel
A century ago, Diesel Power and Hemp Products
|
In 1893, German inventor Rudolf Diesel published a paper entitled “The Theory and Construction of a Rational Heat Engine” which described a motor in which air is compressed by a piston to a very high pressure, causing a temperature spike where injected fuel is auto-ignited and efficiently burned in the expanding compression during the down-stroke. This basic concept results in a simple, safe, cool, highly efficient engine that could run on locally produced vegetable oils – and therefore level the playing field for those who otherwise couldn’t compete with the large steam-powered Industries and Shippers of the day.
Unfortunately, in the early 20th century big-banks and financiers were already exerting their powerful will, in support of their oil and forestry interests, and thus assuring the dominance of emerging petro-chemical industries. So instead of seeing how Diesel’s vision would have played out, we’ve had to wait until the combined and destructive effects of a Financial, Energy, and Environmental crisis, here the 21st century, could obviate the ideals and benefits that Rudolf Diesel had envisioned for Society, well over a century ago; when he built his first engines to be run on the same types of bio-fuels that we now have available today, and which could have cut coal and oil out of the picture from the very start.
A New Mission…
You’ve discovered a Mission Category that still hasn’t been used yet…
If this notice is still appearing at the top of the page then this empty Mission Category is wide open to new explorations…
Feel free to submit any ideas for new Mission Profiles that you’d like to bring to our attention in the Comments fields below. If you’d like to propose your very own Mission, please make sure that you create a WordPress account for yourself (see the “Enlist Now” page for info), and then state your intent with a full summary of your Mission below with a comment entered via your WordPress account, in order that we can upgrade your access credentials.
From there we will create a Mission Profile Stub for you, and assign full Contributor privileges to your account, so that you can write/edit your new Mission Profile, as well as contribute to any other Mission Categories. Once your contribution is approved, you’ll have attained the role of Mission Specialist here at Environauts!
If you haven’t joined us yet, then feel free to either Follow Us or subscribe to our RSS Feed, or “Synch Up” (right-side) to safely follow our Future progress.
If you’d like more info first, then feel free to review the “JOIN US” pages.