Barsanti–Matteucci engine
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The Barsanti-Matteucci engine was the first invented internal combustion engine using the free-piston principle in an atmospheric two cycle engine.[1][2] In late 1851 or early 1852 Eugenio Barsanti, a professor of mathematics, and Felice Matteucci, an engineer and expert in mechanics and hydraulics, joined forces on a project to exploit the explosion and expansion of a gaseous mix of hydrogen and atmospheric air to transform part of the energy of such explosions into mechanical energy.