Prosper L'Orange

In 1909, while working at Benz, he patented a precombustion chamber (DRP 230517, 14 March 1909) which made possible compact, lightweight diesel engines.

L'Orange was director of the Motoren Werke Mannheim AG (MWM) from 1922, which was formed that year when Carl Benz split up the engine division of his company.

At this time the technology did not exist to manufacture nozzles with multiple orifices and diesels used high pressure air to spray the fuel directly into the cylinder.

[5] The two companies announced on 24 June 2011 that their joint €3.4 billion tender offer had been successful, with 94% of Tognum shareholders accepting.

[6] Once the acquisition was complete, Tognum is run as a 50-50 joint venture, with Rolls-Royce merging its Bergen Marine diesel engines unit into the operation.