The name of Nikolaus August Otto will always be associated with the invention of the atmospheric gas engine and with the introduction of the four-stroke or Otto cycle for gas engines, which formed the subject of his German patent of Aug. 4, 1877.
This type of internal combustion engine is called a four-stroke engine because there are four movements, or strokes, of the piston before the entire engine firing sequence is repeated. Most modern automobiles are powered by “Otto cycle” engines, direct descendants of the first four-stroke compression internal combustion engine.
Born in Holshausen, Nassau Germany on June 10, 1832 and died on Jan. 26, 1891, at the age of fifty-eight years, at Cologne. He developed the four-stroke internal-combustion engine, which is widely used in transportation even today. Otto developed the four-stroke internal combustion engine when he was 34 years old.
Because of its reliability, its efficiency, and its relative quietness, Otto’s engine was an immediate success.
Internal combustion engine: Designed by the German Nikolaus August Otto
