Riccardo Bianchi (1854-1936) was an Italian engineer and the first Director-General of the

Italian State Railways Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane S.p.A. ( "Italian Railways of the State"; previously only Ferrovie dello Stato, hence the abbreviation FS) is Italy's national state-owned railway holding company that manages transport, infrastructure, real estat ...

(FS), formed in 1905.

Overview

Riccardo Bianchi was born at

Casale Monferrato Casale Monferrato () is a town in the Piedmont region of Italy, in the province of Alessandria. It is situated about east of Turin on the right bank of the Po, where the river runs at the foot of the Montferrat hills. Beyond the river lies the v ...

, in Piedmont on 20 August 1854. He did his studies and earned a degree in engineering in Turin and then gained practical experience in the railway workshops in

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

where he obtained an industrial technical diploma. After graduation he worked in England for a while as a university scholar.

Early railway career

In 1880 the

Società per le strade ferrate dell'Alta Italia The Società per le strade ferrate dell'Alta Italia (''Upper Italian Railways'', ''SFAI'') was an Italian railway company from 1865 to 1885. History It was established on 1 July 1865 with of line it acquired from the state railway of the Kingd ...

(SFAI) launched a competition for engineers. He was ranked among the first fourteen on merit and was assigned to the Fixed Material Office of the Maintenance and Works Service. At the time, the devices in use were Saxby levers and rodding that, for the control of points, required considerable muscle strength. Bianchi studied an easier mechanism and devised a hydrodynamic command and control system using water mixed with glycerin which he patented on 18 September 1883. For the construction he collaborated with Ing. Giovanni Servettaz. The first Hydrodynamic Central Apparatus in the world for the operation of points and signals thus saw the light in the

Abbiategrasso Abbiategrasso, formerly written Abbiate Grasso. (local lmo, Biegrass ; lmo, label=Milanese, Biaa ), is a ''comune'' and town in the Metropolitan City of Milan, Lombardy, northern Italy, situated in the Po valley approximately from Milan and f ...

railway plant on 15 October 1886. It was a 10-lever system and the results were so good that it was extended to many other installations on the Italian network, and also abroad, and was used until after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In 1885, the SFAI became part of

Rete Mediterranea Rete Mediterranea (RM) defines that part of the Italian railway network that, under the law of 27 April 1885 no. 3048, was assigned to the Società per le Strade Ferrate del Mediterraneo for operation and development. These were mainly lines fro ...

and in 1891 Bianchi was appointed head of the Maintenance and Works Department and, in 1900, Director of the Movement and Traffic Service. On 22 July 1901 he became General Manager of Rete Sicula where he remained until the establishment of the FS in 1905. With the coming of

nationalization Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...

, Bianchi was appointed General Manager of the

Ferrovie dello Stato Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane S.p.A. ( "Italian Railways of the State"; previously only Ferrovie dello Stato, hence the abbreviation FS) is Italy's national state-owned railway holding company that manages transport, infrastructure, real estat ...

by Giovanni Giolitti. Bianchi was respected as a man of great moral integrity and an enlightened and progressive manager, who paid great attention to technological innovation and efficiency. Giolitti, in his memoirs, recalled that, when asked what salary he wanted as General Manager of Ferrovie dello Stato, Bianchi surprised him by replying that the salary he enjoyed as general director of the Sicula Network would be enough.

Director General of the State Railways

Settled in his new prestigious office he had to face great problems. Most of the lines, rolling stock and plant were in a state of neglect and decay. There were different and divergent regulations and provisions. The Adriatic Network had adopted Vignoles rail and the

Hardy brake The vacuum brake is a braking system employed on trains and introduced in the mid-1860s. A variant, the automatic vacuum brake system, became almost universal in British train equipment and in countries influenced by British practice. Vacuum bra ...

, while the Mediterranean Network used double-headed rail and the

Westinghouse brake A railway air brake is a railway brake power braking system with compressed air as the operating medium. Modern trains rely upon a fail-safe air brake system that is based upon a design patented by George Westinghouse on April 13, 1869. The W ...

. Even the couplings were of different types. In ten years Bianchi managed to standardize the regulations and the legal status of the staff. His decisive character led him to face business problems with an entrepreneurial approach. An example was the supply of coal, of British origin, which passed through various intermediaries. Bianchi, instead, set up his own office directly in

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

. Mediating at the ministries he managed to promote important investments to build large locomotive repair depots and important railway lines, such as Rome-Naples and Bologna-Florence, whose construction began during his tenure. After having designed a unified architecture for new lines, he began work on extending the tracks, then of 15,000 km, of which less than one sixth was double track. He invested much effort in the development of electric lighting of vehicles and stations. The problem of shortage of rolling stock was tackled head-on, thanks to huge financing obtained from the Government for thousands of wagons and carriages, as well as new classes of technologically advanced

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

s. In just one year, he managed to acquire or build 567 locomotives, 1,244 coaches and 20,623 freight wagons, in one of the greatest improvement efforts ever seen in the history of Italian infrastructure. His management style was sometimes controversial but this was justified by the fact that a large national enterprise had been established from nothing and he had to face significant problems of amalgamation and unification among the employees. On 24 January 1915, following disputes with the Minister of Transport on the occasion of an earthquake in the

Marsica Marsica is a geographical and historical region in the Abruzzo, central Italy, including 37 ''comuni'' in the province of L'Aquila. It is located between the plain of the former Fucine Lake, the National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise, the plai ...

n territory, Bianchi resigned from his post as general manager. The Bianchi management, however, had an extremely positive effect and created a railway administration that was competitive with those of other European nations. As a result of his appointment as Director General of the FS, the Italian Railway Engineers College had appointed him as its honorary president.

After the FS

Appointed Senator of the Kingdom on 23 February 1917, he was called to hold the post of Minister for Maritime Transport and Railways on 16 June 1917, but resigned on 14 May 1918. He held various other ministerial positions and was a member of the board of directors of some banks and other bodies. He died in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

on 4 November 1936 at the age of 82.

Honours

* Gran Cordone dell'Ordine della Corona d'Italia (27 December 1908) * Grande Ufficiale dell'Ordine dei Santi Maurizio e Lazzaro (25 January 1915)

References

External links

Senate of the Republic
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bianchi, Riccardo 1854 births 1936 deaths Italian engineers People from Casale Monferrato