Diesel Engine Development Timeline
The following timeline provides an overview of the development of the diesel engine during the industrial age of the late 19th century up to the present date. Other significant events are interspersed in the timeline to provide context to the various improvements in technology.
| Year | |
| 1885 | Benz invents first vehicle to use an internal combustion engine |
| 1888 | The Eiffel Tower is built |
| 1888 | Hertz produces radio waves |
| 1892 | Rudolph Diesel applies for a patent for his "thermal combustion engine" |
| 1893 | Diesel builds a ten foot long working model of his engine |
| 1893 | Tesla invents wireless communication |
| 1895 | Marconi develops radio signals |
| 1897 | First prototype diesel engine that is feasible for production developed by Diesel |
| 1897 | Adolphus Busch licenses the diesel engine for the United States and Canada |
| 1898 | Russian oil company Branobel obtains license to produce a diesel engine that will use unrefined oil for fuel |
| 1899 | Engine builders Krupp and Sulzer acquire license from Diesel, and become major diesel engine suppliers |
| 1900 | The first Zeppelin is built |
| 1902 | MAN produces 82 diesel engines by 1910 |
| 1903 | Diesel powered French built Petite-Pierre boat begins fresh-water operations |
| 1903 | The Wright brothers invent the first motor powered airplane |
| 1903 | Vandal tanker begins operations in Russia using Swedish built diesel engines |
| 1904 | The first diesel powered submarine, the Z, is launched by the French navy |
| 1905 | Diesel engine turbo-chargers and intercoolers built by Buchl |
| 1908 | Henry Ford introduces mass production with the Model T |
| 1908 | Deutz and L'Orange perfect a fuel injection pump with precision needle controlled injection |
| 1909 | Benz and L'Orange introduce the pre-chamber, which utilizes a hemispherical combustion chamber |
| 1910 | The Fram, a Norwegian vessel, becomes the first ocean-going ship with a diesel engine, although it was merely a secondary engine |
| 1912 | The Danish ship, MS Selandia, is the first ocean-going ship powered exclusively by diesel engines |
| 1912 | The first locomotive diesel engine is introduced |
| 1913 | U.S. Navy submarines are equipped with diesel engines |
| 1913 | Rudolph Diesel mysteriously disappears while crossing the English Channel aboard the SS Dresden |
| 1914 | German U-boats are diesel powered |
| 1919 | L'Orange patents an pre-chamber insert for a needle injection nozzle |
| 1919 | Cummins manufactures its first diesel engine |
| 1921 | L'Orange develops a variable output injection pump |
| 1922 | First vehicle with a pre-chamber diesel, the Agricultural Tractor Type 6, by Benz |
| 1923 | First pre-chamber diesel engine truck, by Benz |
| 1923 | Lee DeForest invents moving pictures with sound |
| 1927 | First truck injection pumps and nozzles manufactured by Bosch |
| 1927 | First passenger car diesel, by Stoewer |
| 1928 | Alexander Fleming produces penicillin and antibiotics |
| 1930 | Caterpillar begins using diesels in tractors |
| 1930 | First diesel powered U.S. Car, a Packard with a Cummins diesel, built in Columbus, Indiana |
| 1930 | Diesel engines power British airship R101 |
| 1934 | Military tank equipped with diesel, the Polish 7TP |
| 1934 | Germany begins production of aviation diesels, producing over 900 by the onset of WWII |
| 1936 | Mercedes-Benz builds a diesel car |
| 1936 | The Super Chief diesel train is introduced by AT&SF |
| 1936 | The Hindenberg airship is powered by diesel |
| 1937 | The jet engine is invented by Frank Whittle and Hans von Ohain |
| 1937 | USSR powers its military tanks with diesel |
| 1943 | Common rail fuel injection patented by Clessie Cummins |
| 1945 | The atomic bomb is invented, and deployed, to end WWII |
| 1953 | Mercedes introduces a turbo diesel truck in limited production |
| 1954 | Volvo mass produces turbo diesel truck |
| 1954 | First overhead camshaft diesel engine, by Daimler Benz |
| 1962 | Clessie Cummins patents a diesel compression braking system. The brake was eventually manufactured by the Jacobs Company, a leading producer of drill chucks, and was affectionately nicknamed The Jake Brake |
| 1968 | Peugeot introduces small cars with a transverse mounted diesel and front wheel drive |
| 1969 | Neil Armstrong sets foot on the moon |
| 1976 | Cummins common rail injection system undergoes further refinement by ETH Zurich |
| 1980 | First passenger car turbo diesels introduced by Mercedes |
| 1986 | Bosch designs electronic diesel control for BMW 524tD |
| 1986 | Fiat builds first passenger car with a direct injection turbo diesel engine |
| 1990 | The World Wide Web is developed by Tim Berners-Lee |
| 1995 | First common rail injection system in production truck, in Japan |
| 1997 | First common rail injections system in a passenger car, the Alfa Romeo 156 |
| 1998 | BMW wins the 24 Hour Race at Nurburgring using a four cylinder diesel. Better fuel efficiency allowed the BMW to take less pit stops in winning the race |
| 2001 | GM introduces the Duramax Diesel 6600, a 6599 cubic centimeter diesel built in partnership with Isuzu. Its U.S. market share soars to 30% from a meager 3% |
| 2001 | Digital satellite radio is first introduced |
| 2002 | Land pickup truck speed record of 222 MPH set by a Dodge Dakota with a 735 HP diesel engine |
| 2004 | Piezo electric fuel injection technology introduced by Bosch |
| 2011 | Chevrolet increases torque to 765 lb/ft and horsepower to 397 in its newest version of the Duramax Diesel 6600 by converting to piezo electric fuel injection and refining other features of the engine. |
