Nikolaus August Otto, a German engineer, is most often credited with inventing the first practical gasoline internal combustion (gas) engine in 1876, using the famous four‑stroke “Otto cycle.” Earlier gas engines existed, but his design became the first widely successful alternative to the steam engine and the direct ancestor of modern car engines.
Key inventor
- Nikolaus August Otto developed a four‑stroke internal combustion engine that ran on petroleum gas and became the basis for modern gasoline engines.
- His 1876 engine, which compresses the air–fuel mixture before ignition, dramatically improved efficiency and reliability, leading to tens of thousands of engines being built and used in industry and transport.
Earlier gas engine pioneers
- Étienne Lenoir built one of the first commercially successful internal combustion gas engines in 1860, using coal gas as fuel, but it was relatively inefficient compared with later designs.
- Other inventors such as François Isaac de Rivaz and Samuel Brown also experimented with internal combustion concepts before Otto, yet their engines did not achieve the same level of practicality or widespread adoption.
