Matteucci, Felice

SUBJECT AREA: Steam and internal combustion engines

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b. 1803 Italy

d. 1887 Italy

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Italian engineer, co-inventor of internal-combustion engines.

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A distinguished hydraulic engineer, Matteucci is more widely known for his work on early internal-combustion engines. In 1851, during a landreclamation project in Florence, he became acquainted with Eugenio Barsanti. Together they succeeded in designing and producing a number of the first type of gas engines to produce a vacuum within a closed cylinder, atmospheric pressure then being utilized to produce the power stroke. The principle was demonstrated by Cecil in 1820 and was used by Samuel Brown in 1827 and by N.A. Otto in 1867. The company Società Promotrice del Nuovo Motore Barsanti e Matteucci was formed in 1860, but ill health forced Matteucci to resign in 1862, and in 1864 Barsanti, whilst negotiating mass production of engines with Cockerill of Seraing, Belgium, contracted typhoid and later died. Efforts to continue the business in Italy subsequently failed and Matteucci returned to his engineering practice.

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Bibliography

13 May 1852, British Provisional Patent no. 1,072 (the Barsanti and Matteucci engine). 12 June 1857, British patent no. 1,655 (contained many notable improvements to the design).

Further Reading

The Engineer (1858) 5:73–4 (for an account of the Italian engine).

Vincenzo Vannacci, 1955, L'invenzione del motore a scoppio realizzota dai toscani Barsanti e Matteucci 1854–1954, Florence.

KAB