Engineer and inventor — Nikolaus August Otto (Holzhausen an der Haide, 1832 – Cologne, 1891) was a German inventor and entrepreneur, a pioneer of the internal combustion engine. Although he lacked formal technical training, having trained as a merchant, he devoted himself to developing gas engines. In 1876 he built the first efficient, working four-stroke internal combustion engine, based on the thermodynamic cycle that still bears his name. The Otto cycle, articulated in the phases of intake, compression, combustion-expansion and exhaust, is the operating principle of the great majority of petrol engines in cars. His invention paved the way for modern motorisation.
Fun fact
Otto’s patent on the four-stroke engine was later annulled owing to the discovery of an earlier theoretical design by the Italian-French Alphonse Beau de Rochas, but it was Otto who first built a genuinely working and marketable engine.
Theories and contributions
- Otto cycle — Four-stroke thermodynamic cycle (intake, compression, combustion, exhaust) of petrol engines; efficiency depends on the compression ratio : .
Present in chapters
Linked atoms
1 linked atom.