Nikolaus August Otto
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.
Otto, Nikolaus August
Born June 10, 1832, in Holzhausen, Nassau; died Jan. 26, 1891, in Cologne. German designer and entrepreneur.
After graduating from a Realschule in 1848, Otto was involved in commercial activities. Jointly with the German engineer E. Langen, he developed an air-standard engine in 1867. He also built an improved four-stroke gas engine in 1876 using the idea of the four-stroke compression cycle proposed in 1862 by the French engineer A. Beau de Rochas. In 1884, Otto suggested the use of an electric ignition, which made it possible to use a liquid fuel for the engine.
REFERENCES
Radtsig, A. A. Istoriia teplotekhniki. Moscow-Leningrad, 1936.Bernal, J. Nauka v istorii obshchestva. Moscow, 1956. (Translated from English.)
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.