Education
Born in Lucca, Tuscany, Matteucci studied hydraulic and mechanical engineering, first in Paris, then in Florence.
Born in Lucca, Tuscany, Matteucci studied hydraulic and mechanical engineering, first in Paris, then in Florence.
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. 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 & Company 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, and Barsanti departed for Belgium on February 18, 1864 to oversee the work personally. On the following April 19, Barsanti died suddenly, and all their work came to an education
Matteucci returned to his previous work as a hydraulic engineer He studied new hydrometers (to measure the level of a river), rain gauges, and hydraulic operations over rivers.
In 1877, Matteucci argued he and his Barsanti were the originators of the invention of the internal combustion engine.
The patent registered by Nikolaus August Otto was very similar to the Barsanti-Matteucci engine. This frustration contributed to the illness that eventually caused Matteucci"s death, in his own home in Capannori, near Lucca. Many documents concerning the patents of Barsanti and Matteucci’s new motor in England, Piedmont, France, Belgium and Prussia are now kept in the archive of the library of the Museo Galileo in Florence.
