The Otto Engine

The Otto Engine at first glance looks very complicated and more advanced for this period of time. It does not necessarily say “Otto” on the label but it does say it was made for Philadelphia and this type of engine was first seen at the Centennial Exposition in 1876 in Philadelphia, PA. I does not look like it is made to use steam as a power source, could have possibly used coal or wood since during that time it was popular to power engines with coal or wood during this time. It looks like it uses a different movement system compared to engines during the 1870’s. It looks massive, it may be used to power many machines or one huge machine.

Upon further research of the Otto Engine I found that it used gas as its power source instead of stem which was popular. It was the first gas engine of its kind, not for automobile use. It was built but Nicolaus August Otto in 1876, it was said to be the first to use the four-stroke cycle, and also to have powered some of the machines the Corliss engine couldn’t in Machinery Hall in the Centennial Exposition of 1876 (Bryant, “The Origin of the Four-Stroke Cycle”, pp.178). Many argue that Otto was not the first to create this four-stroke cycle, but he was the first to “..patented it in 1876 almost as an afterthought” (Bryant, pp. 180). As you can see in the YouTube video attached to this post that it first needs to be hand cranked so it can power up and then will fun on its own. You can also see how the four-stroke cycle works and how much it moves to ignite the fuel. This could relate to the theme of power seeing as the engine was literally a source of power. Also since Otto was a German it gave them more pride to have an inventor create the first gas and four-stroke cycle engine. This showed they were powerful in the sense of advancement in technology and was not a country that was weak or stupid.