Today (6th June), Google’s Doodle celebrates the 171st birthday of Italian inventor Angelo Moriondo. He is credited with patenting the earliest known espresso machine.
Angelo Moriondo was born in Turin in 1851 to an entrepreneurial family. His grandfather had a liquor company, his father later founded the chocolate company Moriondo and Gariglio. Angelo himself purchased the Grand-Hotel Ligure and the American Bar in the Galleria Nazionale.
Patent of the first espresso machine
It was in 1884, at the General Expo of Turin, that Moriondo presented his coffee machine invention. It earned him the bronze medal.
The patent was initially awarded for six years under the catchy title “New steam machinery for the economic and instantaneous confection of coffee beverage, method ‘A. Moriondo’”. Over the coming years, the inventor continued to improve the machine’s function and performance.
Related article: Why Italy chose opera over espresso
However, Moriondo never put the machine into industrial-scaled production. Instead, he limited the machine to a few hand-built versions which he kept in his own establishments. It was a great way to advertise his bars and hotel.
One significant difference is the machine bulk brewed coffee, unlike today’s machine which brew coffee for individual orders.
