Kenzie’s Korner: A lesson on diesel—er, Diesel

Little known fact: Jim Kenzie is a stickler for spelling and grammar.

So you can surely understand his ire at the lack of capitalization of the term diesel.

"Nicolaus Otto ... was a German engineer," says Jim. "Now, he probably didn't invent the cycle that's named after him—that's the suck, squeeze, bang, blow four-stroke gasoline engine principle—but it's always named after him."

The same goes for British inventor James Atkinson, who is usually credited, perhaps unfairly, for the increasingly common high thermal efficiency engine used in many of today's hybrid vehicles.

Why is it, then, Jim asks, that Rudolf Diesel, inventor of the diesel—er, Diesel—engine, doesn't get the credit of capitalization in his claim to fame?

This segment originally appeared on Episode 12 of Motoring 2016.