Innocenzo Manzetti

Innocenzo Manzetti is the most astonishing inventor in the history of Aosta. Automata, machines, pumps: he is also credited with one of the first telephones in history.

A flute-playing automaton

Innocenzo Manzetti was born in Aosta on 17 March 1826. In 1849 he presented an iron and steel automaton that could play the flute. In 1851, thanks to funding from the municipality of Aosta, he travelled to the Great Exhibition in London.

The telephone before Bell

Between 1861 and 1864, Manzetti built a rudimentary telephone, which he tried out in the streets of Aosta. According to the entry devoted to him, it is the first documented telephone. In 1883, in the midst of the Bell–Meucci controversy, a professor claimed priority of the invention for him.

An engineer in the service of the town

Manzetti also put his talent at the service of the region. In 1861 his hydraulic pump was used to drain the mines of Ollomont. In 1864 he presented a three-wheeled steam velocipede. The same year the municipality commissioned a filter for the water of the Buthier; after it was destroyed by a flood in 1866, he built a new one along the Mère des rives canal.

He died in Aosta on 15 March 1877. A room is now devoted to him at the Saint-Bénin Centre in Aosta.

Source: Treccani, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani.

Main photo: unknown author, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.