Germany. Nikolaus Otto builds the first gasoline engine. It’s interesting to note that at the time of the invention of the internal combustion engine, horses had been providing propulsion for humanity for 6,000 years; there was no shortage of horses, no cost problem, and no problem with railway service. Then, in 1885, Gottfried Daimler invented the motorcycle, and in 1896, the first truck. But it wasn’t until World War I, and its military use, that the real boom in internal combustion engines occurred. 50 years later.
