Saturday, January 11, 2025 at 10:00 a.m.
in the Hall of the Five Hundred in Palazzo Vecchio and in the area in front of the Galileo Museum in Florence
The exceptional working model of the Barsanti and Matteucci engine was presented, masterfully reconstructed by the BM Group of the CMEF - Club Moto d'Epoca Fiorentino
The first functioning internal combustion engine in history was designed and built by two scientists from Lucca, Eugenio Barsanti and Felice Matteucci.
The idea of a faithful reproduction, operating according to the same specifications as the period, was born in 2022 within the CMEF Florentine Vintage Motorcycle Club, with the aim of rekindling the spotlight on an invention that had remained forgotten for a long time, and celebrating the Italian primacy on the 170th anniversary of the deposit at the Accademia dei Georgofili in Florence of a memorandum attesting to the studies, experiments and results achieved by the two inventors.
After two intense years of study and over 5.000 hours of work, the mission of the Club Moto d'Epoca Fiorentino reached its goal on Saturday, January 11, when the "official" start-up at the Galileo Museum in Florence crowned the commitment, efforts, and resources of the group of people dedicated to the project.
The historical documentation was found in Florence at the Accademia dei Georgofili, the Ximenian Observatory, the Galileo Museum, and the State Archives. Its study was supplemented by important information derived from further research conducted on texts, publications, and correspondence of the two inventors.
The engine's start-up was preceded by a conference held in the Salone dei Cinquecento in Palazzo Vecchio, during which the historical developments of the project and the cultural, technical, and scientific approach to faithfully reproducing the engine were illustrated.
In attendance were Florence Deputy Mayor Paola Galgani, City Councilor for Culture Giovanni Bettarini, President of the Barsanti and Matteucci Foundation Maria Luisa Beconcini, Professor Giovanni Ferrara of the University of Florence's School of Engineering, Roberto Ferrari, Director of the Galileo Museum, Paolo Ruggeri, Vice President of Baker Hughes Nuovo Pignone, and, representing the Florentine Vintage Motorcycle Club, President Graziano Dainelli, Antonio Linari, and Maurizio Mugelli.
