There can be little doubt that the year 1876 has great significance in the history of the internal combustion engine, for that was the year that Crossley Brothers were offered, and accepted, the manufacturing rights of the Otto Silent Gas Engine, the world’s first practical four cycle engine.

Indeed, it is from the Otto Silent Gas Engine that the modern internal combustion engine has evolved. A major feature of the engine was that it was a compression type engine, which itself afforded a great many advantages over the non-compression type engine, as built by Lenoir and Hugon. The most noticeable advantage was the fuel economy obtained by compressing the gas and air mixture prior to ignition, with savings of about fifty percent. It was not long after the introduction of the Otto Silent Gas Engine, that the non-compression type engine had disappeared from the scene.

The association between Crossley Brothers and Dr Nicolaus August Otto dates