1832 – 1891
Nikolaus Otto
GermanyTransportationEnergy & Power
Background
A German engineer and businessman.
Contribution
Built the first practical four-stroke internal-combustion engine (1876), the 'Otto cycle' that dominates gasoline engines to this day.
Popular credit vs. the record
The four-stroke cycle had been described earlier in theory by Alphonse Beau de Rochas; Otto reduced it to a working, manufacturable engine.
Associated inventions
Collaborators & contemporaries
Sources & further reading
Each citation names the publisher and the exact reference title.
- Encyclopædia Britannica — technology & biography topic articlesEncyclopædia Britannica · Encyclopedia
- Deutsches Museum — collections & researchDeutsches Museum · Museum
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