Google celebrated the 171st birthday of the godfather of espresso machines, Angelo Moriondo, on June 6 with a special Google Doodle.
Born to a family of entrepreneurs in Italy in 1851, Angelo Moriondo was a prolific inventor. His grandfather founded a liquor production company that was passed down to Angelo’s father, who himself would later build the popular chocolate company, ‘Moriondo and Gariglio.’
Mr. Moriondo patented the first espresso machine in the late 1800s.
Created by Olivia When, the doodle is painted in coffee colour and features a GIF of the espresso machine.
While people spent a lot of time waiting for the coffee to brew, Moriondo came up with an ingenious solution to save time and figured out that making multiple cups of coffee at once would allow him to serve more customers at a faster pace, giving him an edge over his competitors, at a time when coffer drinking was gaining popularity in Italy.
Moriondo’s espresso machine had a large boiler that pushed heated water through a bed of coffee grounds, a second boiler would flash the bed of coffee with steam and complete the brew.
Moriondo presented his espresso machine at the General Expo of Turin in 1884, where it was awarded the bronze medal. He received a patent titled, ‘New steam machinery for the economic and instantaneous confection of coffee beverage, method.’
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