Four-stroke internal combustion engine
Motor de combustión interna de cuatro tiempos
- Date
- 1876 · confidence high
- Place
- Deutz, Cologne, Germany
- Credited to
- Nikolaus Otto (Deutz AG); cycle theorised by Alphonse Beau de Rochas (1862)
- People
- 👤 Nicolaus Otto1832–1891
- Field
- Matter & energy
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Gas engine with prior compression following the intake-compression-power-exhaust cycle. The first efficient, lightweight, mass-produced internal combustion engine.
Otto's patent was annulled in Germany in 1886 once Beau de Rochas's theoretical priority was shown. Daimler and Maybach, Deutz engineers, later developed the fast petrol engine (1885).
What it led to
- Individual motorisation: car, motorcycle, aeroplane
- Workshops and small industries without a steam engine
- Global dependence on oil