There is little in the book about such men as Daimler and Benz since Diesel seemed much more concerned with, as he put it, "dethroning" the steam engine than with contemporary developments in otto internal combustion engines, which he rarely mentions. As I indicate in the epilogue, Diesel's own involvement with building engineers for vehicles was minor. It is certainly clear that his theory for the diesel engine was not simply an attempt to improve on the efficiencies of existing internal combustion engines, but an attempt to approximate the Carnot cycle. On p. 77 of my book, I discuss briefly and draw a distinction between Otto's early atmospheric engine and the 1876 "silent otto," which operated with a four-stroke cycle.
Diesel's Social Ideas
I would like to comment on John B. Rae's review of my book Diesel: Technology and Society in Industrial Germany (The Scientist, March 9, 1987, p. 23). While the growth of industrial society in the 19th century certainly produced many social problems, "the social question" (die soziale Frage) was a concept well recognized by numerous commentators both in Germany and elsewhere. They defined it as the social evils (poor working conditions, urban slums, etc.) produced by the Industrial Revolution an
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