Nicolò Barsanti was born in Pietrasanta (LU) on October 12, 1821, to Giovanni, a marble sculptor, and Angela Francesconi; he was a frail child but of a good and loving nature.
The mother was against sending Nicolò to school because she thought it would be harmful to the health of her frail son, while the father was not inclined to take him to work with him, he wanted to give him an instruction and a higher tone of life.
When he turned six, Nicolò entered the Pious Schools institute located in the convent of St. Augustine in Pietrasanta, where both the direction and teaching were carried out by the Piarist fathers.
Nicolò Barsanti attended the Institute until he was 17, completing his higher studies with excellent results in all disciplines, but revealing a very particular tendency towards the exact sciences and in particular towards mathematics , physics.
After finishing high school, while the father thought that his son would enroll in theUniversity of Pisa to undertake studies in engineering or medicine, the young Barsanti presented himself to the director of the Institute to collect what is equivalent to the current high school diploma and expressed his desire to become a Piarist Father, if he wished. Piarists had accepted it.
Accompanied by Father Bottari, Nicolò left for Florence on July 17, 1838 and completed his novitiate at the Calasanzio Institute “Il Pellegrino”, in via Bolognese.
Nicholas wore the habit that St. Joseph Calasanzio had imposed on his religious and changed his name to Eugene of Our Lady of Sorrows.
He spent two years of probation between prayers and religious studies and, after finishing his novitiate, he continued his research at the San Giovannino college, attending the Ximenian observatory directed by Father Giovanni Inghirami.
In September 1841, Father Inghirami summoned Father Eugenio Barsanti, not yet a priest, to his office and informed him that he would have to move to the S. Michele college in Volterra to teach elementary physics and mathematics:
“I thought, Father, that you had called me to show me the starry sky instead…” replied Father Barsanti, a little confused. “Don't be afraid; I recognize that I am young, but if you deem me suitable for this task, I will do my best.”
The Rector of the Volterra college, Father Alessandro Sarri, despite Father Inghirami's excellent references, was somewhat apprehensive when he saw such a young Father before him, as there were many students and the age difference between the disciples and the teacher was small.
Such was the ardour and commitment with which the young professor dedicated himself to thecourse, which his students were enchanted by.
It was the spring of 1843, the “little teacher”, as the students called him due to his young age and slender build, entered the classroom holding a jar with a long neck, an instrument he had personally built for the experiment he wanted to demonstrate.
That instrument reproduced the Volta's pistolThe teacher explained to his students what he intended to do, filled the container with hydrogen and air, closed the neck hermetically with a cork, then, at the ends of the insulated brass rod ending with two small spheres, he made a shot go off. electric sparkImmediately, a thunderous explosion hurled the cork against the ceiling and reverberated through the classroom. He explained to the frightened students what had happened: the electric spark had ignited the gas mixture, which, expanding in volume, had produced the explosion, launching the cork into the air. The instrument made by Barsanti is still preserved in Volterra.
This experiment brought to Barsanti's mind the idea of using the explosion of a gaseous mixture as a generator of a force to be used in a continuous motion machine that it was more practical than the steam engine.
In a document preserved in the Ximenian archive we find written:
Father Eugenio Barsanti had repeatedly observed that the apparatus, at the moment of the explosion, underwent a heating that was greater the more firmly the cork was pressed, and that this heating reached its maximum when the cork itself was so firmly pressed that the explosion of the detonating mixture was unable to dislodge it. From this observation he deduced that the explosive force of mixtures composed of hydrogen and air was not as violent as the noise heard when the cork was thrown would have led one to suppose, and that its dynamic effects could be regulated by forcing it to transform partially or even totally into caloric.
It is evident that in Barsanti's mind the concept of equivalence from thermal energy ed mechanical energy.
It is said that the experiments at the Volterra College continued as long as Father Eugenio Barsanti remained there, so much so that due to the frequent crackling noises, especially during the night, rumours spread that secret weapons were being created at the college.
In September 1845, Father Eugenio Barsanti was ordained a priest and celebrated his first Mass in his native town, in the Church of St. Augustine in Pietrasanta.
The priest Barsanti was an excellent teacher, a scrupulous and tireless scholar, but never forgetful of the priestly dignity.
After a period of rest with his family, in 1848 Barsanti was called to Florence to teach moral philosophy and geometry and, from the following year, mathematics and physics at the Collegio di San Giovannino. Among his illustrious students, from 1849 to 1852, was Giosuè CarducciBarsanti was subsequently appointed lecturer in mechanics and hydraulics at the Ximenian Institute. Here, towards the end of 1851, he met Engineer Felice Matteucci, with whom he began a fruitful collaboration, supported by a fraternal friendship: from that moment on, the life story of Eugenio Barsanti is closely linked to that of Felice Matteucci and to the events that led to the creation of the first internal combustion engine.
Barsanti's life ended on April 19, 1864 in Seraing in Belgium just as he was about to reap the rewards of his efforts with the start of series production of his engine. Barsanti had arrived in Belgium in March of that year, but it was in Seraing that he contracted a serious case of typhoid fever that led to his death.
His remains, which arrived in Livorno on May 24, were first buried in the "Rosa" villa in Compiobbi, then, in 1910, they were transferred to the crypt of the Church of San Giovannino degli Scolopi in Florence. On October 24, 1954, Barsanti's remains were transferred to the Basilica of Santa Croce, the Florentine church that houses Italy's great figures.
Felice Matteucci was born in Lucca on February 12, 1808 by the lawyer Luigi Matteucci, Minister of Justice of Prince Felice Baciocchi, and the noblewoman Angiola Tomei-Albiani of Pietrasanta.
Felice showed great commitment since childhood, distinguishing himself in studi, so much so that at the age of eleven he was composing highly appreciated poems.
We know that in the school year 1823-24 he was among the students enrolled at the Real Liceo di Lucca (the ancient University of Lucca). scientific inclination revealed itself in particular during his studies at the Royal Bourbon College in Paris where his father, who resided there as the Grand Duke's Representative to the King of France, had enrolled him in 1824. In Paris he began his studies in hydraulics e mechanics for which he showed particular aptitude.
In December 1825 Felice Matteucci had to return to Italy with his father due to the serious illness of his brother Francesco and so he completed the official course of his studies in hydraulics and mechanics in Florence.
After completing his studies, while his father was appointed councilor of theHigh Court of Justice of Leopold II, spent his time compiling the Tuscan Code and his mother ran the house, Felice continued his scientific research and at the same time he looked after the agricultural lands: the Matteuccis owned rustic lands with two "country houses", in Vorno and Colle di Compito, in the province of Lucca.
It was undoubtedly during his stay in his villa in Colle di Compito, at the age of 27, that observing day after day the movement of water of Lake Sesto produced the project for the drainage of the Bientina marsh. Others, such as Ximenes, Larga, Nottolini, had dealt with the drainage of the Bientina Marsh, but they had not taken into account the natural slope of the Lucca countryside that slopes down from the left bank of the Serchio River towards the Arno River and therefore claimed, to use a popular expression, to send the water upwards, trying to drain the water from Lake Sesto into the Serchio.
Matteucci, with meticulous diligence, made all the measurements, all the calculations, he made sure of the height of the lake and the slope of the land, and concluded that to drain the waters to the sea, it was necessary to build a canal, the "Matteucci Canal”, following the slope of the land along the right of the Arno.
Wonderful project, full of grandiose works and great difficulties in execution, but which guaranteed perfect success.
Matteucci asked Giuseppe Venturoli, an authority on the subject at the time, for his opinion on his project. Venturoli, in addition to noting its merits, concluded as follows:
“I believe that Mr. Matteucci's project, because it pursues a very useful goal and chooses the most suitable means to achieve it, is highly worthy of consideration and encouragement; and I consider it superior to the others I have heard of so far, because it opens the way to a more extensive and complete reclamation of Lake Bientina.”
The project caused such a stir that it pushed the Prince Demidoff to set up a company to carry out the planned works; the paperwork was already ready, but the Prince withdrew and the company went bankrupt before it was born.
Matteucci presented the project to the Grand Ducal Government which had at heart thereclamation work of the Bientina marsh, but the Commission, of which he was a part Father Eugenio Barsanti, preferred the project of Commander Alessandro Manetti, director of water and road works.
Matteucci, who was convinced that his project was better and that it would benefit the community, was so disappointed by it that it affected him for the rest of his life.
Manetti's project, after many years of work and incalculable expenses, had a very unfortunate outcome and this increased the Matteucci's regret who, having become friends with Father Eugenio Barsanti, abandoned hydraulics and he devoted himself to mechanics, entering into association with him.
From 1851 onwards, Matteucci's life was linked to that of the internal combustion engine who designs, develops, and tests it together with Barsanti. He shares his friend's experiences, hopes, joys, and disappointments.
The collaboration with Barsanti was interrupted between 1860 and 1862, due to a serious nervous breakdown.
Two years later, in 1864, his friend died and, except for some episodes and new disappointments, Matteucci he abandoned the research on the internal combustion engine and devoted himself again to hydraulic works projects; a few years later he was forced to interrupt his activity due to yet another nervous breakdown which accompanied him until his death, which occurred on 13 September 1887 in his house in Vorno (LU).
He was buried in Campi Bisenzio, in the family chapel of the villa that belonged to the Matteucci family, and originally owned by his wife Giulia Ramirez di Montalvo.
A plaque, placed in 1932 on the facade of Arnolfini Palace in Piazza del Giglio in Lucca, it commemorates his birthplace.