Otto Vertical Gas Engine
date: label: date made
content: ca 1895
notes: label: Description
content: This Otto vertical gas engine was originally inside the cellar of Boyd’s Drug Store, which was in Washington DC. It was used primarily in the 1890s by Dr George W. Boyd before being donated to the museum in 1940.
label: Description
content: Vertical gas engines were typically internal combustion engines where the piston moves vertically within the cylinder. This was a common design in early combustion engines, particularly after 1859 when Étienne Lenoir created the first commercially successful gas engine.
label: Description
content: This particular engine is a No. 2 size and produced 2 horsepower (HP) at 300 revolutions per minute (RPM). This size would generally have been used in printing offices for light cylinder presses, as well as several job presses, such as in restaurants for 40-quart freezers or to operate 8-12 fans, and in tailors' shops for around 10 sewing machines. It also consists of a spark ignition and a pendulum governor.
label: Description
content: This design was patented in 1889 and made in Pennsylvania in 1895 at the Otto Gas Engine Works in Philadelphia. The Otto Gas Engine Works was founded in 1876 as a subsidiary of the German firm <i>Gasmotoren-Fabrik Deutz</i>, with the aim of marketing the Otto engine in the United States.
label: Description
content: Gasmotoren-Fabrik Deutz, originally named N.A Otto & Cie, was founded in March 1864 in Cologne, Germany, by Nicolaus August Otto, inventor of the four-stroke engine, and engineer Eugen Langen, Otto’s business partner, who provided a large amount of funding and the necessary entrepreneurial skills. In 1869, the company relocated to Deutz and was renamed Gasmotoren-Fabrik Deutz in 1872.
label: Description
content: Leading up to the First World War, the US government forced Otto Gas Engine Works to sever its relationship with its German parent company and in 1915, it became a branch of Superior Gas Engine Company.
label: Description
content: This engine is a gift from Mrs. George W. Boyd and was restored by the Smithsonian’s National Air & Space Museum in 1962.
place: label: place made
content: United States: Pennsylvania
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mechanical and Civil Engineering
label: Exhibition
content: Power Machinery
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Mrs. George W. Boyd
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MC.311902
label: catalog number
content: 311902
label: accession number
content: 156547
label: serial number
content: 4765
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Engine, Internal Combustion