Nicolaus Otto

Nicolaus August Otto was a German engineer who successfully developed the compressed charge internal combustion engine that ran on petroleum gas and led to the modern internal combustion engine. Born in Holzhausen an der Haide in 1832, he was the youngest of six children and worked as a salesman of colonial goods before turning to engines. In 1860 he and his brother learned of Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir's gas engine, built a copy and applied for a patent in 1861, and he tried a compressed charge engine that year. The Association of German Engineers defined the Otto engine in DIN standard 1940 as one igniting the compressed fuel-air mixture with a timed spark. He died in 1891.