1914 Otto Stationary Engine
A rare and antique 1914 Otto Stationary Engine was among a number of items donated to HPHA by Joseph A. (Buck) Pennrose Jr. Details below. This item was sold in January 2012.
Otto stationary engine Serial Number 14489 manufactured around 1914. Speed is 300 rpm 8 HP. Bore 5 3/4 inches Stroke 12.5 inches. Belt Drive. It is mounted on a trailer.
The engine drives a GE ac generator model 2G37 number 5256627.
Condition: the cast iron water jacket is cracked, water was probably left in it and froze creating a crack along the length of the top. Our engineering consultant believes that it can be welded by a welder with cast iron experience.
We have not attempted to run the engine.
Our engine was made by the Otto Gas Engine Works, of Philadelphia located at 33rd and Walnut Streets, who according to a Scientific American article, possibly in the 1870s. had made a national reputation on their Otto gas engines. The city of Philadelphia as it appears in the year 1894: a compilation of ... By Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce says their engine became known as the standard all over the land.
more photos below...
Otto Engines
from Wikipedia.... the engine known today as the "Gasoline Engine", the Otto Cycle engine was created in 1876, by Nikolaus Gustav Otto (1832-1891) . Otto engines were used primarily for stationary uses, as Otto had no interest in transportation.
Otto and his partner, Eugen Langen, in 1864 set out to improve upon an existing gasoline engine designed by Frenchman Etienne Lenoir. Their engine, using the 4 stroke cycle now known as the Otto Cycle, won the grand prize at the 1867 Paris World Exhibition.
Otto and Langen moved their company to the town of Deutz, Germany in 1869 where the company was renamed to Deutz Gasmotorenfabrik AG (The Deutz Gas Engine Manufacturing Company).
Gottlieb Daimler was technical director and Wilhelm Maybach was the head of engine design. Daimler and Maybach would later go to develop engines for transportaton, starting Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (DMG, in English—Daimler Motors Corporation) in 1890. They sold their 1st automobile in 1892.
Daimler died in 1890 but Maybach would go on to develop Zeppelin engines, luxury cars after WWI, and Tiger tank engines for the nazis in WWII.
After 14 years of research and development Otto succeeded in creating the compressed charge internal combustion engine May 9, 1876. Otto found a way to layer the fuel mixture into the cylinder to cause the fuel to burn in a progressive, as opposed to explosive fashion. He referred to this as being a layered or stratified charge. This resulted in controlled combustion and a longer push of the piston in the cylinder rather than the explosion which destroyed all the engines attempted previously. The fuel was still Illuminating or Coal Gas just as Lenoir's and his own atmospheric engines had used.
This engine uses four cycles in it's creation of power and is known now as the Otto Cycle engine. This is the same engine that was first attempted in 1862.
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