Eugenio Barsanti

Here, during a lecture describing the explosion of mixed hydrogen and air, he realised the potential for using the energy of the expansion of combusting gases within a motor.

[clarification needed] Other approaches based on the pushing force of the explosion, like the one developed by France's Etienne Lenoir, were slower.

In 1856, Barsanti and Matteucci developed a two-cylinder 5 HP motor and two years later they built a counter-working two-piston engine.

After some searching, Barsanti and Matteucci selected the John Cockerill foundry in Seraing, Belgium to mass-produce a 4 hp (3.0 kW; 4.1 PS) engine.

Barsanti died suddenly at Seraing of typhoid fever, on 30 March 1864, and Matteucci was left alone to lead the business.