Nikolaus August Otto (June 14, 1832 - January 28, 1891) was the German inventor of the internal-combustion engine, the first engine to burn fuel directly in a piston chamber. Up until his invention, all engines were external-combustion engines and fuel was burned in a separate compartment. As a young man he began experimenting with gas engines and in 1864 joined with two friends to form his own company. The company was named N. A. Otto & Cie., which was the first company to manufacture internal-combustion engines. The company exists today as Deutz AG.
His first atmospheric engine was completed in May 1867. Five years later he was joined by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach and together they produced the idea of the four-stroke cycle or Otto cycle.
First described in 1876, the stroke is an upward or downward movement of a piston in a cylinder. As used in an adapted form for an automobile engine, four up-down strokes are involved: (1) Downward "Intake" stroke - coal-gas and air enters the piston chamber, (2) Upward "Compression" stroke - the piston compresses the mixture, (3) Downward "Power" stroke - ignites the fuel mixture by electric spark, and (4) Upward "Exhaust" stroke - releases exhaust gas from the piston chamber. the Otto's patent was invalidated in 1886 when it was discovered that another inventor, Alphonse Beau de Rochas, had already described the four-stroke cycle principle in a privately published pamphlet.
According to recent historical studies, the Italian inventors Eugenio Barsanti and Felice Matteucci patented a first working efficient version of an internal combustion engine in 1854 in London (pt. Num. 1072). The Otto engine is in many parts at least inspired from this precedent invention [1]. In 1879, working independantly in another part of Germany, Karl Benz was granted a patent for his internal combustion engine and in 1885 used the engine to move a three-wheeled automobile that was granted a patent.
Otto originally sold his engine as stationary. In 1926, Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler merged companies.
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