The foundation of the modern engine; Nikolaus Otto (1832-1891).

Automotive News Europe,  December, 2001  

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Nikolaus Otto was a happy-go-lucky young man who traveled through western Germany in the 1850s selling rice, coffee, tea and sugar.

He was trying to make enough money to wed his beloved Ann, who he met at a carnival in Cologne in 1858, when he was 26.

But young Otto had a fascination for things mechanical. In 1860, he heard about Frenchman Jean-Joseph Etienne Lenoir's successful experiments with internal combustion engines.

``In his youthful enthusiasm he thought of this day and night," wrote Kurt Rathke in his biography of Otto. ``He had the wildest plans about the ...

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