INVENTOR

Nikolaus Otto

1832 - 1891

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Nicolaus August Otto (10 June 1832 – 26 January 1891) was a German engineer who successfully developed the compressed charge internal combustion engine which ran on petroleum gas and led to the modern internal combustion engine. The Association of German Engineers (VDI) created DIN standard 1940 which says "Otto Engine: internal combustion engine in which the ignition of the compressed fuel-air mixture is initiated by a timed spark", which has been applied to all engines of this type since. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Nikolaus Otto is the 14th most popular inventor (up from 15th in 2019), the 116th most popular biography from Germany (down from 114th in 2019) and the 3rd most popular German Inventor.

Nikolaus Otto is most famous for his invention of the four-stroke internal combustion engine.

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Among INVENTORS

Among inventors, Nikolaus Otto ranks 14 out of 426. Before him are Alexander Graham Bell, Guglielmo Marconi, Henry Ford, Louis Braille, Charles Babbage, and Samuel Morse. After him are Louis Daguerre, Nicolas Appert, Rudolf Diesel, Cai Lun, Nicéphore Niépce, and Karl Ferdinand Braun.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1832, Nikolaus Otto ranks 8. Before him are Gustave Eiffel, Maximilian I of Mexico, Louisa May Alcott, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Wilhelm Wundt, and Lewis Carroll. After him are Gustave Doré, José Echegaray, Edward Burnett Tylor, Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, William Crookes, and Ivan Shishkin. Among people deceased in 1891, Nikolaus Otto ranks 2. Before him is Arthur Rimbaud. After him are Helena Blavatsky, Georges Seurat, Pedro II of Brazil, John A. Macdonald, Georges-Eugène Haussmann, Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, P. T. Barnum, Herman Melville, Wilhelm Eduard Weber, and Sofia Kovalevskaya.

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In Germany

Among people born in Germany, Nikolaus Otto ranks 116 out of 7,253. Before him are Rudolf I of Germany (1218), William Herschel (1738), Joachim von Ribbentrop (1893), Gottlieb Daimler (1834), William the Silent (1533), and Ernst Haeckel (1834). After him are Albert Speer (1905), Heinrich Schliemann (1822), Rudolf Christoph Eucken (1846), Claus von Stauffenberg (1907), Philip Melanchthon (1497), and Arminius (-17).

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Among INVENTORS In Germany

Among inventors born in Germany, Nikolaus Otto ranks 3. Before him are Johannes Gutenberg (1394), and Karl Benz (1844). After him are Karl Ferdinand Braun (1850), Hans Lippershey (1570), Werner von Siemens (1816), Wilhelm Maybach (1846), Karl Drais (1785), Konrad Zuse (1910), Adam Opel (1837), Emile Berliner (1851), and Joseph Pilates (1883).

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