 |
Angelo MoriondoItalian inventor
Date of Birth: 06.06.1851
Country:  Italy |
Content:
Biography of Angelo Moriondo
Angelo Moriondo, the Italian inventor of the first espresso coffee machine, was born on June 6, 1851, in Turin, Italy. He came from a family of entrepreneurs, with his grandfather opening a company for liqueur production. The family business eventually passed on to Angelo's father, Giacomo. Angelo and his brother Ettore took over the business, and their cousin Gariglio, the founder of the oldest chocolate shop in Rome called 'Moriondo and Gariglio', also joined them.
As his commercial activities expanded, Moriondo purchased the 'Grand-Hotel Ligure' and a bar in Piazza San Carlo in Turin. This acquisition became a powerful catalyst for the inventor, who was inspired to create a machine that could produce instant coffee to satisfy his busy and demanding customers. Angelo presented his invention at the International Exhibition in Turin in 1884 and was awarded a bronze medal. He received a patent for his coffee machine on May 16, 1884, under the name 'New steam apparatus for economical and instant coffee production according to A. Moriondo's methodology'. The machine was actually constructed by someone named Martina under Moriondo's direct supervision.
The design of the machine was improved, and a new patent was granted on November 20, 1884. The invention underwent international patenting after being registered in Paris on October 23, 1885. Over the following years, Moriondo continued to make significant improvements to his coffee machine and obtained new patents. However, he never made his invention available on an industrial scale and limited himself to manually assembling a few machines. He fiercely protected his 'coffee pearls', believing that this would attract even more attention to them.
Historian Ian Bersten, an expert in coffee history, claims to have been the first to discover Moriondo's patent. Describing the Italian inventor's device, Bersten says it was 'almost certainly the first Italian machine to control the flow of steam and water through a portion of coffee'. He refers to Moriondo as 'one of the earliest espresso pioneers, if not the first'. Unlike modern espresso machines, which dispense a small portion of the aromatic beverage, Angelo's machine brewed a large quantity of coffee at once.
