The Vision of Diesel
The invention of Diesel (and the tragedy of Rudolf)
Sometimes essays should be short and sweet. We’re experimenting with a new style of essay for the next few months, one that is light and meandering in its scope. This series will act as breadcrumbs for future, longer pieces.
An author’s jurisdiction on his work stops after publishing. He is in no position to demand a certain interpretation of his work. The interpretation is now between the reader and the book itself. You may leave clues, but it is the reader that solves the mystery - correct or incorrect.
The beauty of the free market is that the end usage of an invention depends on what need is being met. The interpretation is in the hands of the market.
This is also at the expense of what needs the inventor believed needed to be met. Take the inventor Rudolf Diesel — who patented the diesel fuel injection. Diesel's ambition was to produce light and cheap engines that would be purchased by smaller entrepreneurs (machinists, watchmakers, restaurants) to usher in an extensive decentralization of industry.
“It is undoubtedly better to decentralize small industry as much as possible and to try to get it established in the surroundings of the city, even in the countryside, instead of centralizing it in large cities where it is crowded together without air, light, or space. This goal can only be achieved by an independent machine, the one proposed here, which is easy to service. Undoubtedly, the new engine can give a sounder development to small industry than the recent trends which are false on economic, political, humanitarian, and hygienic grounds”
His dream was to bring in large scale social change. But what happened in the end?
Diesel's machine found its most important uses not in small workshops but in heavy machinery and locomotives and post World-War II in larger scale container ships.
This led to an unprecedented level of concentration of mass-scale manufacturing — in direct contrast to Diesel's vision.
The market maketh what it chooseth.
In the current discourse of AI, we are quick to presume what the end goal will be. Yet, taking a piece out of Diesel's books, let's not get caught up in visions. Let’s wait for the market to decide.
