Nikolaus Otto

Nikolaus Otto was a German engineer who developed the first practical internal combustion engine to run on the four-stroke cycle that bears his name, the Otto cycle. Working with his business partner Eugen Langen at the company that became Deutz AG, he patented an earlier atmospheric gas engine in the 1860s before demonstrating his refined four-stroke design in 1876, an engine that ran far more quietly and efficiently than the two-stroke gas engines it competed against. Otto's four-stroke engine became the dominant design for small stationary power and, adapted by other engineers, for the automobile, and Deutz AG grew under his leadership into a leading manufacturer of internal combustion engines during his lifetime.