Angelo Moriondo Trivia | 21 facts about the Italian inventor

Angelo Moriondo is an Italian inventor. He is credited for patenting the earliest known espresso machine.

So let’s dive into some trivia and facts about the Italian inventor.

1. Angelo Moriondo was born in Turin, in June 6, 1851
2. He died in Marentino, 31 May 1914
3. It was an Italian inventor usually credited for patenting the earliest known espresso machine, in 1884
4. His machine used a combination of steam and boiling water to efficiently brew coffee
5. Angelo Moriondo came from an entrepreneurial family
6. His grandfather founded a liquor producing company that was continued by his father Giacomo
7. He later founded the chocolate company Moriondo and Gariglio along with his brother Agostino and cousin Gariglio
8. Angelo purchased the Grand-Hotel Ligure in the city-centre Piazza Carlo Felice and the American Bar in the Galleria Nazionale of Via Roma
9. Moriondo presented his invention at the General Expo of Turin in 1884
10. There it was awarded the bronze medal
11. The patent was awarded for a period of six years on 16 May 1884 under the title of “New steam machinery for the economic and instantaneous confection of coffee beverage, method ‘A. Moriondo”
12. The machine was built by a mechanic named Martina
13. Martina was working under the direct supervision of the inventor
14. It was successively updated with a patent on 20 November 1884, Vol 34, No, 381
15. The invention was then confirmed by international patent application after being registered in Paris on 23 October 1885
16. In the following years, Moriondo continued to improve his invention drastically, each improvement being patented
17. Moriondo never took the invention to industrial-scale production
18. He limited himself to the construction of a few hand-built machines, which he jealously conserved in his establishments, convinced that this was a significant advertisement for them
19. Ian Bersten, a historian chronicling the history of coffee, describes the device as “the first Italian bar machine that controlled the supply of steam and water separately through the coffee” and Moriondo as “one of the earliest discoverers of the espresso machine”
20. Unlike true espresso machines, it was a bulk brewer, and did not brew coffee for the individual customer
21. On 6 June 2022, search engine Google commemorated Moriondo with a Doodle on his 171st birth anniversary