The Busch-Sulzer Bros. Diesel Engine Company was founded by Adolphus Busch of the Anheuser-Busch brewing company in 1911 as a joint venture with Sulzer Brothers of Switzerland.
[1][2][3] Although Busch acquired the rights to build Sulzer designs with the formation of Busch-Sulzer, the American joint venture preferred its own designs.
The first submarines with Busch-Sulzer engines were the United States L-class submarines L-5 through L-8, designed by the Lake Torpedo Boat Company and launched 1916–17.
[4] Busch-Sulzer continued to produce engines for the US Navy and other customers through World War II, after which its assets were sold to the Nordberg Manufacturing Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
[5] Then-Lieutenant (and future Admiral) Chester W. Nimitz studied Diesel engines in Germany for the United States Navy in 1913.