Nikolaus Otto biography

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Engineer Nikolaus Otto was born on June 10, 1832, in Holzhausen, Germany. In 1861, he built a gasoline-powered engine and several years later created the internal-combustion engine that the four-stroke cycle. The four-stroke cycle offered an alternative to the steam engine. Despite being patented by Alphonse Beau de Rochas, the four-stroke cycle is known as the Otto cycle. He died on January 26, 1891.