Priester Eugenio Barsanti

Eugenio Barsanti was born in Pietrasanta and he is considered to be the inventor of combustion engine, even if someone else stole his licence.
At the time of steam engines, he thought about the explosion of guns and he invented the combustion engine, putting a gas or a flammable liquid instead of gunpowder.
It was just a theory until he collaborated with the hydraulic engineer Matteucci; at that point, they both were able to convert this general idea into reality.
In 1854, they filled their first patent but it was only in 1860 that the engine created in Florence was born.
It was a 20 horsepower engine.
The invention was great.
Barsanti and Matteucci founded a company to exploit their engine.
Unfortunately, this discover was appreciated only in Italy. In Europe, people preferred to use the 1859 engine by franco-belgian Lenoir.
The opposition of Barsanti was useless. At that period, France and Belgium were industrialised countries. What could do an Italian priest compared with them? However, a Belgian mining company in Liège decided to use the Italian engine. Barsanti immediately rushed to Belgium. The engine was experimented and all the tests were successful.
The production was going to start when the poor priest fell ill with typhus and died a few days after.