Otto, Nikolaus August

born June 10, 1832, Holzhausen, Nassau

died Jan. 26, 1891, Cologne, Ger.

German engineer who developed the four-stroke internal-combustion engine.

He built his first gasoline-powered engine in 1861, and in 1876 he built an internal-combustion engine using the four-stroke cycle (four strokes of the piston for each explosion), which offered the first practical alternative to the steam engine as a power source. Though the four-stroke cycle was patented in 1862 by Alphonse Beau de Rochas (1815–93), it is commonly known as the Otto cycle since Otto was the first to build such an engine.

* * *

▪ German engineer

born June 10, 1832, Holzhausen, Nassau

died Jan. 26, 1891, Cologne

 German engineer who developed the four-stroke internal-combustion engine, which offered the first practical alternative to the steam engine as a power source.

      Otto built his first gasoline-powered engine in 1861. Three years later he formed a partnership with the German industrialist Eugen Langen (Langen, Eugen), and together they developed an improved engine that won a gold medal at the Paris Exposition of 1867.

      In 1876 Otto built an internal-combustion engine utilizing the four-stroke cycle (four strokes of the piston for each ignition). The four-stroke cycle was patented in 1862 by the French engineer Alphonse Beau de Rochas (Beau de Rochas, Alphonse), but since Otto was the first to build an engine based upon this principle, it is commonly known as the Otto cycle. Because of its reliability, its efficiency, and its relative quietness, Otto's engine was an immediate success. More than 30,000 of them were built during the next 10 years, but in 1886 Otto's patent was revoked when Beau de Rochas' earlier patent was brought to light.

* * *