Otto, Nikolaus August

Nikolaus August Otto (1832–1891), a German engineer recognized as the co-inventor of the internal combustion engine (1867), and the inventor of the four-stroke Otto cycle (1876), which was widely adopted for use in automobile, airplane, and other motors. Otto made improvements to the internal combustion engine, orinally designed by Jean Lenoir. His four-stroke piston cycle internal combustion engine was the first practical alternative to the steam engine and served as the prototype for the development of modern combustion engines. The engine’s design consists of four strokes of a piston that draws in and compresses a gas-air mixture within a cylinder, producing an internal explosion.