Alfonso Bialetti
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alfonso Bialetti was an Italian metalworker and inventor. He is most famous as the designer of the ubiquitous Moka Express coffee pot and the founder of the Italian cookware giant Bialetti Industrie S.p.A.
Bialetti apprenticed in France, where he acquired expertise in the working of aluminium, then still underused in the home. In 1918, he started his own concern in Coccaglio.
The stovetop Moka express coffeemaker was reputedly inspired by the methods used by women in the district to wash clothes; a combination of boiling water and a central, redistributive tube.
The Moka express was perfected in 1933; he sold about ten thousand a year, but did not market it nationally. His son, Renato, was instrumental in doing so at the giant trade fairs that followed the end of the second World War.
Bialetti continues to be honoured as a designer, and the Moka express is considered something of a design icon. The Design Museum in London has his original blueprints on display.
Contents |
[edit] See also
[edit] Trivia
- L'Omino (a.k.a. the small man with a moustache) on the Bialetti logo is actually a caricature of Alfonso Bialetti [1].
- Alfonso Bialetti is the grandfather of Alberto Alessi, of Alessi the famous Italian design house.
[edit] Notes
[edit] External links
This article about an engineer, inventor or industrial designer is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
