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Innocenzo Manzetti

Mechanical Engineering

Innocenzo Manzetti was an Italian inventor trained as a land surveyor who built a life-sized automaton flute player powered by compressed air and clockwork, able to perform twelve pieces of music. He is also credited with developing a speaking telegraph that transmitted words over an ordinary telegraph wire in the mid 1860s, building a steam-powered car around 1864, and designing a hydraulic machine for draining water from mines. Despite this range of invention he died poor and largely unrecognized in his hometown of Aosta. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Birth Year
1826 1
Birth Date
1826-03-17 1
Death Year
1877 1
Death Date
1877-03-15 1
Nationality
Italian 1
FAQs

What did Innocenzo Manzetti invent, and why is he so little known?

A flute-playing automaton, a speaking telegraph and a steam car, yet he died poor and unrecognized in Aosta.

Manzetti, an Italian inventor trained as a land surveyor, built a life-sized automaton flute player powered by compressed air and clockwork that could perform twelve pieces of music. He is also credited with a speaking telegraph that carried words over an ordinary telegraph wire in the mid 1860s, a steam-powered car built around 1864, and a hydraulic machine for draining water from mines. Despite this range of invention he died poor and largely unrecognized in his hometown of Aosta.
Connections

Long-Form Articles

The 1865 press report of Manzetti's speaking telegraph and the theft rumour, Articles
In the Other Atlases

Nationality

Italy

Also in Geography Atlas: the nationality of this subject.

Source Innocenzo Manzetti (Wikipedia)Lead sentence 1
Quote, Lead sentence 1
Innocenzo Vincenzo Bartolomeo Luigi Carlo Manzetti (Italian pronunciation: [innoˈtʃɛntso manˈdzetti]; 17 March 1826 – 15 March 1877) was an Italian inventor born in Aosta.
Sources
1. Innocenzo Manzetti (Wikipedia)
  • Extract, first sentence
    17 March 1826
  • Extract, first sentence [death-date]
    15 March 1877
  • Extract, first sentence [death-year]
    15 March 1877
  • Extract, first sentence [nationality]
    Italian inventor born in Aosta
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