Side effects

The diesel engine

Robert Diesel told Bach that his book "Elements of machinery" had given him important insights for the design of his engine.

When, in my helplessness, I looked through the literature of the time, I came across the recently published 2nd edition of C. Bach's "Elements of machinery", which enthralled me so much that I immediately forgot about my engine and devoured Bach's book from the first to the last page, an undertaking that took me – in view of my otherwise strenuous activities – almost a year. Yet this time was not wasted, for then – at least, so I believe – I was able to construct my engine; the book had taught me to literally feel what happens in every organ of a machine, just as a gymnast doing an exercise feels how his limbs are stretched, pressed and bent; the machine had become a living being inside me, one I understood completely and with which I felt at one."