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In simple terms, the process of combustion creates energy that is converted into motion The ignition by the spark plug of the admixture of fuel and compressed air forces the piston down This energy is used to rotate the propeller shaft that runs the length of the vehicle to the differential which shifts the power ninety degrees, turning the rear axle which in turn turns the wheels Back in the engine, the crankshaft, via the connecting rod, brings the piston up again for another intake of air and fuel, allowing the process to be repeated It is repeated hundreds of times per minute This is the four-stroke combustion cycle, the invention of Nikolaus Otto Otto was a German inventor He grew up on a farm in the Rhineland-Pfalz region and served an apprenticeship in commerce He abandoned his career in business in order to pursue his interest in gas engine design It is a common misconception that Otto received the Grand Prix at the International Exposition of 1867 in Paris for his four stroke engine It is true that Otto and his partner Eugen Langen were indeed awarded the Grand Prix by Napoleon III at the 1867 International Exposition, and that the Exposition was in Paris, but it was for the earlier atmospheric gas engine that ignited fuel without compressed air Among the many who visited the Exposition was Jules Verne, who drew some of the inspiration for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea from the demonstrations of electricity on display there Perhaps if Otto had invented his four stroke engine in time for the International Exposition of 1867 in Paris it might have captured Verne’s imagination instead, though it is possible that cross-country driving may not have held the same mystique for readers of nineteenth-century science fiction as underwater travel Nevertheless, Otto’s machine was impressive for its time and Verne would have been at least mildly interested, if not as taken with it as Napoleon III Though more efficient than the Otto and Langen engine, itself an improvement on Étienne Lenoir’s 1858 design, the early versions of the