Famous Italian Inventors & Discoverers

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 1 
Count Alessandro Volta
(Physicist, Chemist)
Count Alessandro Volta
6
Birthdate: February 18, 1745
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Como, Duchy of Milan, Italy
Died: March 5, 1827
While Alessandro Volta was a count by birth and was supposed to become a lawyer or a priest, he became a scientist instead. His invention of the battery led to the SI unit of electric potential being named volt. He was also the first to isolate methane gas.
 2 
Guglielmo Marconi
(Inventor of 'Radio' and Winner of 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics)
Guglielmo Marconi
12
Birthdate: April 25, 1874
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Bologna, Italy
Died: July 20, 1937

Guglielmo Marconi was an Italian electrical engineer and inventor best remembered for his work on long-distance radio transmission. Marconi, who is credited with inventing the radio, was honored with the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in the field of wireless telegraphy. Also a businessman, Marconi founded the Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company in 1897. 

 3 
Antonio Meucci
(Inventor of voice-communication apparatus)
Antonio Meucci
6
Birthdate: April 13, 1808
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Florence
Died: October 18, 1889
Italian inventor Antonio Meucci was born into poverty and had to work part-time as a gate-keeper to support his studies. While working as a stage technician, he invented a pipe telephone. He later invented an electromagnetic telephone-like device, credited by many as the world’s first telephone. 
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 4 
Bartolomeo Cristofori
(Italian Musical Instrument Maker Known for Inventing the Piano)
Bartolomeo Cristofori
4
Birthdate: May 4, 1655
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Padua, Italy
Died: January 27, 1731
 5 
Gerolamo Cardano
(South African Politician and Zulu Tribal Leader Who Was Home Minister of South Africa from 1994 to 2004)
Gerolamo Cardano
4
Birthdate: September 24, 1501
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Pavia, Italy
Died: September 21, 1576

Italian polymath Gerolamo Cardano is best known for his iconic work Ars magna, or The Great Art, which contributed immensely to the field of algebra. Throughout his illustrious life, he had been a physician, a math lecturer, and an astrologer. He was also the first to describe typhus fever clinically.

 6 
Guido of Arezzo
(Italian Pedagogue and Music Theorist Who Invented the Modern Staff Notation)
Guido of Arezzo
4
Birthdate: 0991 AD
Birthplace: Arezzo, Italy
Died: 1033 AD

Guido of Arezzo was an Italian pedagogue and music theorist of High medieval music. He is often credited with inventing the modern staff notation, which later gave rise to Western musical notation. Among his treatises, Micrologus, was one of the most widely circulated medieval treatise on music.

 7 
Alfonso Bialetti
(Italian Engineer Best Known for Inventing 'Moka Express' Coffeemaker)
Alfonso Bialetti
3
Birthdate: June 17, 1888
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Montebuglio, Italy
Died: March 4, 1970

Alfonso Bialetti was an Italian engineer best remembered for inventing the famous Moka Express coffeemaker. The coffee pot, designed by Bialetti in 1933, has been a style icon ever since it achieved popularity during the 1950s. Alfonso Bialetti is also credited with founding Bialetti Industries, a giant kitchen-ware company.

 8 
Galileo Ferraris
(One of the Pioneers of AC Power System and Inventor of the Induction Motor)
Galileo Ferraris
2
Birthdate: October 31, 1847
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Livorno Ferraris, Italy
Died: February 7, 1897

Galileo Ferraris was an Italian university professor, physicist, and electrical engineer. He was one of the pioneers of AC power system. He is also credited to be the inventor of the three-phase induction motor although he never patented his work. He worked at the Italian Industrial Institution and later at the Italian Electrotechnical Association.

 9 
Giuseppe Mario Bellanca
(Italian-American Airplane Designer & Aviation Pioneer)
Giuseppe Mario Bellanca
1
Birthdate: March 19, 1886
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Sciacca, Italy
Died: December 26, 1960

Giuseppe Mario Bellanca was an Italian-American airplane designer, builder, and aviation pioneer. He is credited with numerous design firsts and the aircraft designed by him have broken many aviation records. In 1973, Giuseppe Mario Bellanca was made an inductee of the National Aviation Hall of Fame.

 10 
Giovanni Battista Amici
(Italian Astronomer, Microscopist, and Botanist Best Known for Invention of the 'Achromatic Lens')
Giovanni Battista Amici
2
Birthdate: March 25, 1786
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Modena, Italy
Died: April 10, 1863

Italian astronomer, microscopist and botanist Giovanni Battista Amici is best-remembered for effecting significant improvements in mirrors of reflecting telescopes and development of microscope. His subjects of studies included the satellites of Jupiter and double stars in astronomy and infusoria and fructification of plants in biology. He invented dipleidoscope and direct vision prism and was the first to discover pollen tubes.