Nicolaus Otto

Nicolaus August Otto was a German engineer born on June 10, 1832, and he passed away on January 26, 1891. He is best known for creating the compressed charge internal combustion engine. This engine used petroleum gas and was a big step toward the engines we use today in cars and other machines.

Otto’s engine worked by mixing fuel and air, compressing it, and then using a timed spark to make it ignite. This method is still used in many engines around the world. Because of his important work, the Association of German Engineers made a standard called DIN 1940 to describe this kind of engine, naming it the “Otto Engine.” His invention helped change how people power vehicles and machines, making modern transportation possible.

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 kind of engine made by Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir in Paris. This engine used gas to work. The Otto brothers made a copy of this engine themselves. They tried to get a patent for their own version, which would use liquid fuel instead of gas, but their request was turned down.

First four stroke engine, 1861

Otto wanted to create an engine using a special idea called the compressed fuel charge. In 1861, he tried to build this engine, but it only worked for a few minutes before it broke. Because of this, Otto's brother stopped working on the idea, so Otto decided to get help from others.

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

Partnership with Eugen Langen

In 1864, Nicolaus Otto partnered with Eugen Langen to create the world's first company focused on building engines that burn fuel inside. They named their company NA Otto & Cie and based it in Cologne.

Their first engine used gas explosions to move a piston, which then was pushed back by air pressure. This engine used less fuel than older designs and became popular, with the company making 634 of them each year by 1875. However, it had limits—it could only produce a small amount of power and needed lots of space to operate.

Otto then worked on a new kind of engine that squeezed the fuel and air tightly before lighting it. With help from Franz Rings and Herman Schumm, brought in by Gottlieb Daimler, Otto created a successful four-stroke engine in 1876. This design became known as the "Otto cycle" and 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 stay still and work without moving. It uses a piston that moves up and down in 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 for use as a stationary motor, not for moving vehicles.

Earlier patents

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

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

Production

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

Honors

Nicolaus Otto was recognized with many honors for his work on engines. In 1867, his engine won a gold medal at the 1867 World Exhibition in Paris. Later, in 1882, he received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Würzburg. Today, his home is a museum supported by the local government. In 1936, a rule was made to name all engines that mix fuel, compress it, and ignite it with a special device "Otto engines."

Milestones

Nicolaus Otto made important progress in engine design over many years. In 1862, he began testing four-stroke engines, and by 1864, he had 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.