Debt note of June 9, 1853
courtesy of Baker Hughes Florence
1853 – The first engine prototype
A little over a year into their collaboration, Barsanti and Matteucci began building a prototype of the engine they were developing.
No description of this prototype exists; the only information can be gleaned from two debit notes that the Pietro Benini Foundry of Florence (later Nuovo Pignone), which was responsible for its construction, had addressed to Mr. Felice Matteucci, one dated June 9, 1853, and the second dated November 2, 1853. There are also letters and notes exchanged between Benini and the two scientists, which testify to the long and difficult gestation of this engine, which, following its experiments, clearly required modifications and repairs.
From the debit note dated November 2, 1853, we can glean some information about the characteristics of the prototype they built: it was a single-cylinder engine, and, given the presence of a gear wheel and a jack, it was of the gravitational-atmospheric type with delayed action on the return stroke. Ultimately, the two inventors were experimenting with the fourth system they had described in the Memoria deposited at the Accademia dei Georgofili in June 1853, although in that document they had stated that they would adopt this system only in the event of unforeseen difficulties in testing the third.
The engine operated only experimentally: in fact, there is no record of it ever being used for practical purposes.
Debt note dated November 2, 1853
courtesy of Baker Hughes Florence
