Nicolaus Otto (1832 - 1891) was a German engineer and inventor who built the first practical four-stroke internal combustion engine. [1] Working largely without formal engineering training, he developed a compact and reliable engine that offered the first viable alternative to the steam engine as a source of small-scale power. [2] The four-stroke sequence he brought into commercial use is still known as the Otto cycle and underlies most modern gasoline engines. [1]
Early life
Nicolaus Otto was born on 10 June 1832 in Holzhausen an der Haide, a village in the Duchy of Nassau. [1] He received no formal training as an engineer and began his working life in commerce, taking a position as a travelling salesman. [1] During the early 1860s he grew interested in the gas-fuelled engine patented by the Belgian-French inventor Etienne Lenoir, and he began building and experimenting with his own internal combustion designs. [2]
Partnership and early engines
In 1864 Otto formed a manufacturing partnership with the industrialist Eugen Langen, establishing one of the first firms devoted to internal combustion engines; the business eventually became the Gasmotoren-Fabrik Deutz. [1] Their improved atmospheric engine won a gold medal at the 1867 Paris World Exhibition, giving the young company international recognition and a commercial foothold. [1] The firm later employed the engineers Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach, who would go on to pioneer high-speed engines for road vehicles. [1]
The four-stroke engine
In 1876 Otto completed an internal combustion engine that compressed the fuel-air mixture before ignition and operated on a cycle of four piston strokes: intake, compression, power, and exhaust. [2] The design was markedly more efficient, quieter, and more reliable than earlier engines, and it was an immediate commercial success, with more than 30,000 units built over the following decade. [2] Although the four-stroke principle had been described in an 1862 patent by the French engineer Alphonse Beau de Rochas, Otto was the first to construct a working engine on the principle, and the sequence became known as the Otto cycle. [2]
Patent dispute and legacy
Otto's German patent on the four-stroke engine was revoked in 1886 after Beau de Rochas's earlier work was brought to light, opening the field to competitors. [2] The setback did little to diminish the practical impact of his engine, which established the internal combustion engine as a dependable power source and formed the technical foundation for the automobile industry that followed. [3] Otto died in Cologne on 26 January 1891. [1] He was later inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in recognition of his contribution to the development of the gasoline engine. [3]
