wolf_brother
Banned
IOTL, according to Wikipedia, Eugenio Barsanti and Felice Matteucci invented patented a design for 4-cycle internal combustion engine in 1854, which was lost in later years; further they didn't have a working prototype until 1860, which was subsequently destroyed.
In the same period Pietro Benini successfully designed a working prototype of Barsanti & Matteucci's design in 1856, and made several improvements to it, eventually supplying 5 HP. Benini's design was used in his factory in Floerence, but never expanded beyond there, and as Benini himself wasn't an acute businessman his factory was sold off soon after.
Instead of thinking to attach the engine to a vehicle (at the time limited mostly to trains or ships), all three sought the internal combustion engine to use in industrial processes. They wanted to replace traditional coal engines in factories with their new design, believing it to be safer, cleaner, and more efficient.
All three men worked in Florence, which, along with the rest of Italy, wasn't exactly stable or prosperous in the time period, one of the underlying reasons for these early designs failure. WI though ITTL the Florentine Republic survived the 1848 period, likely in combination with the Roman Republic it was inspired by and tied to, and in the context of a liberal unified Italy. Therefore the Barsanti-Matteucci engine, with Benini's improvements, goes into mass-production sometime early-to-mid 1860s, and likely gains widespread use in factories across the North Italian plain. So what happens next, whats the big changes from IOTL? This isn't my area of expertise so thus I'm hoping somehow on the boards has some good information on the period's technology and economics.
In the same period Pietro Benini successfully designed a working prototype of Barsanti & Matteucci's design in 1856, and made several improvements to it, eventually supplying 5 HP. Benini's design was used in his factory in Floerence, but never expanded beyond there, and as Benini himself wasn't an acute businessman his factory was sold off soon after.
Instead of thinking to attach the engine to a vehicle (at the time limited mostly to trains or ships), all three sought the internal combustion engine to use in industrial processes. They wanted to replace traditional coal engines in factories with their new design, believing it to be safer, cleaner, and more efficient.
All three men worked in Florence, which, along with the rest of Italy, wasn't exactly stable or prosperous in the time period, one of the underlying reasons for these early designs failure. WI though ITTL the Florentine Republic survived the 1848 period, likely in combination with the Roman Republic it was inspired by and tied to, and in the context of a liberal unified Italy. Therefore the Barsanti-Matteucci engine, with Benini's improvements, goes into mass-production sometime early-to-mid 1860s, and likely gains widespread use in factories across the North Italian plain. So what happens next, whats the big changes from IOTL? This isn't my area of expertise so thus I'm hoping somehow on the boards has some good information on the period's technology and economics.