Nicolaus Otto
1832–1891 · German · Industrial Revolution
Known for: Invented the four-stroke internal combustion engine powering most modern automobiles
Nicolaus Otto was a traveling salesman with no engineering education who invented the four-stroke internal combustion engine—intake, compression, power, exhaust—the operating principle of billions of engines worldwide. He spent years obsessively perfecting his design.
The Otto cycle remains the fundamental basis of gasoline engines to this day. He was the quintessential practical inventor: no formal training, no theoretical framework, just relentless tinkering until it worked.
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