Top 7 Italian Inventions

Top 7 Italian Inventions

Image: Wikimedia Commons

When you think of Italian inventions, one of the first must be pasta, right? Italy is credited as the home of the renaissance, a lot of advancements in music, art, and even fashion took place in this country. Europe has some of the most interesting inventions that have changed the course of history, and are even life-changing; from batteries to foodstuff, to music, to leisure things, to clothing, you name it. Well, a lot of things were invented in Italy, some, which you might honestly not be prepared for! Actually, jeans, yes the clothing, and especially blue jeans are an Italian invention! I guess you never thought about it! One will be shocked at some of the backgrounds behind some interesting inventions, and the lengths that the inventor s have gone to their inventions to life. Many of the inventions have had to be modified through time, but they indeed are important!

Here are seven Italian inventions that will blow your mind!

1. Jacuzzi 

Let us start with the most relaxing one. The famous Jacuzzi. Yes, it was invented by an Italian! An Italian immigrant to the USA, Candido Jacuzzi who had a son who suffered from Rheumatoid Arthritis, back in 1949 made the first Jacuzzi. When he invested it, he meant for it to be used as a hydrotherapeutic device to aid his son get some relief from his pain. He filed a patent for the Jacuzzi first in 1963, which was a portable one, and in 1964, filed one for the Jacuzzi Whirlpool. The Jacuzzi was however sold to another company that claimed to have been the original inventors. It took sometime before the real inventor was given credit and given his rights back! Interesting.

2. Telephone 

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Yes, Graham Bell is credited as the person who invented the telephone. It was however he, who patented the telephone back in 1876. In 2002, the US House of Representatives finally gave credit to the original inventor of the first basic phone, Antonio Meucci, honoring his contribution to the invention. He named ‘teletrofono’ an idea which he developed in 1849. It was first used to transmit messages and connected his laboratory to his bedroom on the second floor. Even though he submitted his patent caveat request in 1871, there were challenges and he could not renew it. There are however a lot of issues surrounding the invention of the telephone, but it is a good thing it enhanced communication!

3. Radio

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This has remained one of the most important inventions on this planet, and the person credited for making this happen is none other than Guglielmo Marconi. He even received a Nobel Peace Prize alongside Karl Ferdinand Braun for physics. He was born in Italy, in 1874, and died in 1937. He got his breakthrough when on December 12th, 1901, he received his first transatlantic radio signal. A brilliant physicist, he started out with simple things like an induction coil from his father’s place, increasing signal and distance over time and even though it took time and effort, he got his first patent in England in 1896, having been assisted by Sir William Preece the Post office chief engineer. Having increased distance where signals could be received from 6.4 Kilometers to 16.4 Kilometers, in 1897 a land station was erected in La Spezia. The invention had generated a lot of interest among a lot of people.

4. Piano

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There is no surprise here. After all, some of the best composers like Antonio Vivaldi came from Italy! Bartolomeo Cristofori who hailed from Padua in Italy is known to be the inventor of the music machine known all over the music industry and the world. Bartolomeo was a maker of musical instruments, and this particular invention dates back to the 18th century, and the idea behind the invention of the piano was that Bartolomeo wanted something that the musicians could have control of the volume, a function, which the harpsichord did not have (the harpsichord and the piano look somewhat similar, but with many differences). He removed the plucking mechanism used in the harpsichord and replaced it with a hammer, to make a piano! This instrument has definitely become one of the most important for composers as well as musicians!

5. Banks 

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Yes, the institution where people save money and do monetary transactions was first started in Italy, by the famous Medici Family, a very wealthy Italian family, back in the Renaissance period. Giovanni de’ Bicci Medici founded the first bank in 1397, in Florence, Italy. Even though other concepts of ‘banking’ existed before that, like moneylending in Greece and Rome, the Medici Bank revolutionized banking as we know it and changed the world of finance across the world.

6. The electrical battery- volt

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Many inventions are named after the inventors and many people probably did not know that the volt was named after the man who invented it, Alessandro Volta. He was born in Italy on February 17th, 1745, and died on March 5th, 1827; he was also a professor of physics at the Royal School of Como as well as moved to the University of Pavia, where he was promoted to be the Chair of Physics at the University of Pavia. He improved on a machine that allowed the generation of static electricity and his interest in electricity enabled him to discover the Voltaic pile or Voltaic column, which comprised of alternating piles of silver and zinc which were separated by cloth or paper soaked in sodium and saltwater.

7. The fax machine

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The fax machine was once the in-thing in the world of communications, it still is used by people! Young people might never get to understand what it was and why it was a big deal in the first place, and they might never know the name, Father Giovanni Caselli. Father Giovanni Caselli, was an Italian priest, physicist, and inventor. He invented the first useable facsimile machine, the pantelegraph. It was used in the 1860s to transmit signatures and writing over a certain distance, using the normal telegraph lines. Major advancements were made overtime on the pantelegraph, but it was Giovanni, who really brought the technology to life.