Nicolaus Otto

Nicolaus August Otto was a German engineer. He was born on June 10, 1832, and died on January 26, 1891. He is famous for making the compressed charge internal combustion engine. This engine used petroleum gas and was an important step for the engines used in cars and machines today.

Otto’s engine mixed fuel and air, compressed it, and used a spark to make it ignite. This method is still used in many engines. Because his work was so important, the Association of German Engineers made a standard called DIN 1940 for this kind of engine, naming it the “Otto Engine.” His invention helped change how people power vehicles and machines, leading to modern transportation.

Biography

Nicolaus August Otto was born on 10 June 1832 in Holzhausen an der Haide, Germany. He was the youngest of six children. His father passed away the same year he was born. He started school in 1838 and did well for six years before moving to a high school in Langenschwalbach until 1848. Although he did not finish his studies, he was known for good performance.

Otto enjoyed learning about science and technology, but he ended up training as a business apprentice for three years at a small merchandise company. After this, he moved to Frankfurt and worked for Philipp Jakob Lindheimer, selling items like coffee, tea, rice, and sugar. He later worked for other companies, traveling around Western Germany to sell goods.

Lenoir engine

In late 1860, Nicolaus Otto and his brother heard about a new engine made by Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir in Paris. This engine used gas to work. The Otto brothers made a copy of this engine. They tried to get a patent for their own version, which would use liquid fuel instead of gas, but they were not allowed to.

First four stroke engine, 1861

Otto wanted to build an engine with a new idea called the compressed fuel charge. In 1861, he tried to make this engine, but it stopped working after just a few minutes. Because of this, Otto's brother stopped helping, so Otto asked others for help.

From 1862 to 1863, Otto worked with a mechanic named Michael J. Zons in Cologne to improve the engine. Since he didn’t have much money, Otto had to work for a man named Carl Mertens in 1862 so he could keep working on his engine.

Partnership with Eugen Langen

In 1864, Nicolaus Otto worked with Eugen Langen to start the first company that made engines which burned fuel inside. They called their company NA Otto & Cie and set it up in Cologne.

Their first engine used gas explosions to push a piston, which then moved back because of air pressure. This engine used less fuel than older ones and became popular. By 1875, the company made 634 of these engines each year. But it had some problems—it could only make a small amount of power and needed a lot of space.

Later, Otto made a new kind of engine. He squeezed the fuel and air tightly before lighting it. With help from Franz Rings and Herman Schumm, brought in by Gottlieb Daimler, Otto made a successful four-stroke engine in 1876. This design, called the "Otto cycle," is the basis for most engines used today.

The Otto cycle

Main articles: Otto cycle and Four-stroke engine

The Otto engine was made to work while staying still. It uses a piston that moves up and down inside a cylinder. Later, it was changed to work in cars. The engine has four main steps:

• (1) The piston moves down to let coal-gas and air into the combustion chamber.
• (2) The piston moves up to squeeze the mix together.
• (3) The piston moves down again, and a flame or electric spark lights the fuel mixture.
• (4) Finally, the piston moves up to let the used air and gas out.

Otto sold his engine only to be used as a stationary motor, not for moving vehicles.

Earlier patents

Nicolaus Otto had many patents from different countries for his inventions. His manager, Gottlieb Daimler, wanted to build small engines for transportation, but Otto was not interested. Daimler left with Maybach. Daimler did not want to pay royalties to Otto, so he hired a lawyer. The lawyer found an old patent for a four-cycle engine by a French engineer named Beau De Rochas from 1862. Because of this, Otto lost one patent, and Daimler could sell his engines in Germany without paying. Neither Otto nor Daimler knew about Rochas’s patent at the time, and Rochas never built an engine.

Other inventors like Marcus and Barsanti are sometimes mentioned before Otto, but their engines were different. They used a two-cycle design that did not compress the fuel. The only engines made and sold in large numbers before Otto’s were made by Lenoir, who sold around 700 engines.

Production

Over 50,000 of these engines were made in the 17 years after they were first made.

Honors

Nicolaus Otto was honored for his work on engines. In 1867, his engine won a gold medal at the 1867 World Exhibition in Paris. In 1882, he got an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Würzburg. Today, his home is a museum. In 1936, a rule was made to call engines that mix fuel, compress it, and ignite it "Otto engines."

Milestones

Nicolaus Otto made important progress in engine design. In 1862, he began testing four-stroke engines. By 1864, he set up the world's first engine factory, called NA Otto Cie. In 1867, his gas engine won a Gold Medal at the World Exhibition in Paris.

Later, his company moved and changed names several times. In 1876, he developed the four-stroke engine known as the Otto-motor. In 1884, he created the electric ignition system. By 1885, other inventors like Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz used similar engines to build the first cars.