Nikolaus Otto

Nicolaus August Otto ( born June 10, 1832 in Holzhausen an der Haide / Taunus, † 26 January 1891 in Cologne) was an inventor of many today still used in internal combustion engines details and a co-inventor of the four-stroke principle. The current term petrol engine but not referred to his former motor, but was proposed to his honor in 1936 by VDI for all spark ignition engines and reciprocating engine, which for the first time in 1946 took place in a DIN standard. Self-taught, he never completed a university degree, but later received an honorary doctorate.

Family

Otto was the son of a farmer, his father also had the post office of the place. He went through an apprenticeship as a clerk and earned his livelihood after his apprenticeship as a clerk in the cities of Frankfurt am Main and Cologne. Otto was married to Anna Gossi, with whom he had seven children. His son Gustav Otto was aircraft manufacturer.

Curriculum vitae

As early as 1862 he began the first experiments with four-stroke engines, but only from 1876 were used. In 1863 he built his first gas engine.

In 1864 he founded, together with the engineer Eugen Langen first the first engine factory in the world, " NA Otto & Cie ", then in 1872 the" gas engine factory Deutz AG ", today's DEUTZ AG. In 1876 it succeeded Otto, financially supported by Eugen Langen, to develop a four-stroke gas engine with compressed charge, which gained by Wilhelm Maybach for series production. This gas combustion engine was developed according to the four-stroke principle based on an invention by Étienne Lenoir. This type of engine is the basis for the construction of internal combustion engines to this day.

At the Paris World Exhibition in 1867, they presented their version of a gas engine to the public for the first time. It was an aviation piston engine wherein the piston via a rack and not via a crank mechanism relayed his energy. This new engine development had a third of the fuel consumption of the hitherto known engines. She was awarded a gold medal.

Until the launch of the Otto four-stroke engine in 1876 already by Otto Langen engines nearly 5,000 aviation piston engines were built in Deutz and their licensees.

1884 Otto invented for its gas engines, the electric ignition. This innovation has made it possible to use also an alternative liquid fuels to the gas have been exclusively used.

Patent litigation

Independently of each other before Otto's invention of the four-stroke engine Christian Reithmann 1860 and Alphonse Beau de Rochas in 1862 had each obtained patents on the four-stroke engine, which led to litigation later. On January 30, 1886 and 1889, the so-called Otto patents that were part of the Deutz gas engine factory, abolished in Germany, were followed up in other countries.

This Nicolaus Otto could continue to apply in the German Reich as the inventor of the four-stroke engine, offered Deutz process winner Reithmann to 25,000 gold marks and a pension for life. Christian Reith man signed an affidavit under which the Deutz AG and Otto was allowed to continue described as the German inventor of the four -stroke engine. Deutz has been able to keep the contract secret until 1949 Arnold Langen ( biographer of Nicolaus Otto ) published the history of Reithmann processes in book form.

Felice Matteucci also argued unsuccessfully that he and Eugenio Barsanti were the original inventors with their engine from 1853.

Honours for Otto

In 1882 he was awarded by the Faculty of Arts of the University of Würzburg honorary doctorate.

Otto is the namesake for the Otto cycle. Prior to the Köln Messe / Deutz in Cologne- Deutz railway station is a monument to Nicolaus August Otto and Eugen Langen. After Nicolaus August Otto, the schools in Bad Schwalbach, Diez, Nastaetten, Köln- Deutz and Berlin light field are named.

Stamp of the German Post Office (1952 ): 75 years of spark-ignition engine

Stamp of the German Post Office (1964 ): 100 years of German internal combustion engine