Eugenio Barsanti
Father Eugenio Barsanti ( born October 12, 1821 in Pietrasanta, † April 19, 1864 in Seraing, Belgium ), also called Nicholas, was an Italian engineer, who is praised to be the inventor of the internal combustion engine, but the patent application was lost and no one knows what kind of machine he really invented. There are only a drawing of 1858.
Life and work
Barsanti was born in Pietrasanta in Tuscany. He was short and slender. He studied in a religiously and scientifically oriented institute near Lucca in Tuscany and in 1838 (also in Italian: Scolopi ) in Florence novice at the Piaristen, who were known for their scientific studies.
1841 Barsanti began to teach at Collegio San Michele in Volterra. Here he realized during a lecture about the explosion of a hydrogen-air mixture, the potential to use the energy of expansion of the combustion gases in an engine.
Later, when he taught at an institute in Florence, he met Felice Matteucci, a hydraulic engineer. Matteucci was enthusiastic about the idea for the machine, and the two men worked together the rest of their lives.
They left their invention on June 12, 1854 in London patented because the Italian laws could guarantee at this time does not provide sufficient international protection. The prototype was completed later in the 1860s. As the year of the invention applies 1853.
The main advantage of the anti- bars Matteucci engine was the use of the restoring force of the piston by the cooling of the gas. Other developments that are based on the forward pushing force of the explosion, like those of Étienne Lenoir from France, were slower. The Barsanti - Matteucci engine proved to be efficient and won a silver medal of the Institute of Science of Lombardy.
In 1856 he developed a two-cylinder, 5 -horsepower engine and two years later they built a counter -rotating twin -piston engine.
Barsanti thought that the new engine is a big improvement over the steam engine, much safer, less cumbersome, and quick to operate. However, it was not light enough to serve as a locomotive engine. The main objective was to provide mechanical energy in factories and ship propulsion.
After some searching Barsanti and Matteucci selected the foundry of John Cockerill in Seraing in Belgium to a four -horsepower machine to mass produce. Orders for the machine soon followed from many European countries.
Barsanti died on March 30, 1864 suddenly at Seraing of typhoid and Matteucci was not only able to run the business. The development of the machine failed and Matteucci returned to his first profession ( for hydraulic system).
As Nikolaus Otto patented his engine, Matteucci argued unsuccessfully that he and Barsanti were the original inventors.
Barsanti and Matteucci are shown on an Italian postage stamp in 2003, commemorating the 150th anniversary of the invention.