DIESEL RUDOLF: (1858-1913)

DIESEL RUDOLF: (1858-1913) German inventor and mechanical engineer, famous for having invented the Diesel engine, which burns Diesel fuel (both named after him). An extremely rare A.L.S., Diesel, to one side of a plain postcard, Rue Demours, Paris, 4th September 1885, to the antiquarian bookseller Theodor Ackermann of Munich, in German. Diesel seeks some information from his correspondent, writing ´Ich ersuche um Angabe der Titel und Erscheinungs-Jahre der besten und vollständigsten Werke über Spiritus & Presshefefabrication, sowie über Mühlenbau, sowie Mittheilung der äussersten Preise dieser Werke. Inbesondere ersuche ich auch um diese Angaben für das Werk von Schlegel, vollst. Mühlenbaukunst´ (Translation: ´I request the titles and years of publication of the best and most complete works on spirit and pressed yeast fabrication, as well as on mill construction, as well as information on the highest prices of these works. In particular, I also request this information for the work by Schlegel, Complete art of mill construction´). Hand addressed by Diesel to the verso. Autographs of Diesel are extremely rare in any form, not least due to his disappearance and death at the age of 55 in circumstances that remain unsolved. A few contemporary pencil annotations and some very light, minor age wear, VG Carl Friedrich Schlegel´s Complete mill construction: according to the latest most important inventions and improvements at home and abroad had been published in 1866.