Felice Matteucci (February 12, 1808 – September 13, 1887) was an Italian

hydraulic Hydraulics (from Greek: Υδραυλική) is a technology and applied science using engineering, chemistry, and other sciences involving the mechanical properties and use of liquids. At a very basic level, hydraulics is the liquid counte ...

engineer who co-invented an

internal combustion engine An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal combus ...

with

Eugenio Barsanti Father Eugenio Barsanti (12 October 1821 – 19 April 1864), also named Nicolò, was an Italian engineer, who together with Felice Matteucci of Lucca invented the first version of the internal combustion engine in 1853. Their patent request was gr ...

. Their patent request was granted in London on June 12, 1854, and published in London's Morning Journal under the title "Specification of Eugene Barsanti and Felix Matteucci, Obtaining Motive Power by the Explosion of Gases", as documented by the Fondazione Barsanti e Matteucci.

Biography

Born in

Lucca Lucca ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the Serchio River, in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. The city has a population of about 89,000, while its province has a population of 383,957. Lucca is known as one o ...

Tuscany Tuscany ( ; it, Toscana ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence (''Firenze''). Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, art ...

, Matteucci studied hydraulic and mechanical engineering, first in Paris, then in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

. In 1851 he met Father Barsanti and appreciated his ideas for a new type of engine. They worked together to turn the primary concept into a manufacturable item, eventually developing a model suitable for mass production. Its construction was entrusted to Bauer & Co. of Milan, a company also known as Helvetica, which delivered the motor at the beginning of 1863. The success of the engine, which was much more efficient that the steam-engine, was so great that orders started pouring in from as far away as Constantinople. Matteucci and Barsanti reached an agreement for the production of the motor with a company in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, and Barsanti departed for

on February 18, 1864 to oversee the work personally. On the following April 19, Barsanti died suddenly, and all their work came to an end. Matteucci returned to his previous work as a hydraulic engineer. He studied new hydrometers (to measure the level of a river),

rain gauge A rain gauge (also known as udometer, pluvia metior, pluviometer, ombrometer, and hyetometer) is an instrument used by meteorologists and hydrologists to gather and measure the amount of liquid precipitation over a predefined area, over a period o ...

s, and hydraulic operations over rivers. In 1877, Matteucci defended that he and Barsanti were the originators of the invention of the

. The patent registered by

Nicolaus August Otto Nicolaus August Otto (10 June 1832, Holzhausen an der Haide, Nassau – 26 January 1891, Cologne) was a German engineer who successfully developed the compressed charge internal combustion engine which ran on petroleum gas and led to the mod ...

was indeed very similar to the

Barsanti-Matteucci engine Replica in Milan The Barsanti-Matteucci engine was an internal combustion engine using the free-piston principle in an atmospheric two cycle engine. In late 1851 or early 1852 Eugenio Barsanti, a professor of mathematics, and Felice Matteucci, a ...

. This frustration contributed to Matteucci's illness that eventually caused his death, in his own home in

Capannori Capannori () is an Italian town and ''comune'' in the province of Lucca, in northern Tuscany. History The 40 hamlets of Capannori are located on the lands that once corresponded to the eastern territories of the Republic of Lucca. Most of those h ...

, near

. The documents concerning the priority of Barsanti and Matteucci’s engine and their patents in England, Piedmont, France, Belgium and Prussia are kept in the archive of the library of the Museo Galileo in Florence.

Works

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References

External links

Archive of Museo Galileo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Matteucci, Felice 1808 births 1887 deaths People from Lucca 19th-century Italian inventors Hydraulic engineers Engineers from Florence People associated with the internal combustion engine

Biography

Works

See also

References

External links