Felice Matteucci
Felice Matteucci (February 12, 1808 - September 13, 1887) was an Italian hydraulic engineer who co-invented an internal combustion engine with Eugenio Barsanti. It is not known whether they were the first to do so, as the patent in question was lost.[1]
Born in Lucca, Matteucci studied hydraulic and mechanical engineering, first in Paris, then later in Florence. In 1851 he met Father Barsanti and appreciated his ideas for a new type of engine. They had a life-long collaboration developing the primary concept into a manufacturable item.
After the death of Barsanti in 1864, and following the failure of society in their time to promote the engine, he 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 that he and his partner 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 design. This frustration contributed to the illness that eventually caused Matteucci's death, in his own home in Capannori, near Lucca in Tuscany.
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- ^ "La documentazione essenziale per l'attribuzione della scoperta". http://www.barsantiematteucci.it/inglese/documentiStorici.html. "The request bears the no. 700 of Volume VII of the Patent Office of the Reign of Piedmont. We do not have the text of the patent request, only a photo of the table which contains a drawing of the engine. We do not even know if it was a new patent or an extension of the patent granted three days earlier, on December 30 1857, at Turin."
