Nikolaus Otto, a grocery salesman, came up with this design in 1876 after sixteen years of trying to improve on Lenoir’s engine. He had enough success along the way to make and sell stationary engines and to expand his firm, which became Deutz – still a leading engine maker. Although Otto sold many engines, he was not interested in developing a car, so two of his employees, Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach,
