Francesco Illy

Francesco Illy (Hungarian: Illy Ferenc; 1892 in Temesvár, Austria-Hungary – 1956 in Trieste, Italy) (7 October 1892 – 1956) was a Hungarian accountant, bookkeeper, businessman, philanthropist. He founded Illy and invented various coffee machinery.

Biography
Illy was born to a middle-class family in Temesvár, Kingdom of Hungary. His father, János Illy, was a Hungarian carpenter. His mother, Aloisia Rössler, was Danube Swabian. He studied economics in Temesvár. After secondary school, he moved to Vienna, where he worked for two big Transylvanian companies. At the age of 22, he was conscripted into the Austro-Hungarian Army, and served from 1914 at almost every front of the First World War, including at the Battle of Kraśnik and the Battles of the Isonzo. He was awarded the Silver and Iron Cross of Merit, and in 1917 he was awarded the Bronze Bravery Medal, Karl Troop Cross and reached the rank of Sergeant.

After the war and the Treaty of Trianon, he stayed with his sister in Trieste, where he soon married a Triestine woman. He found work with companies dealing with cocoa and coffee roasting. He later invented his own method for maintaining the quality of freshly roasted coffee, so it could be delivered to other locations rather than roasting it on site. He formed a partnership with the local coffee manufacturers Hausbrandt. He met Vittoria Berg, a piano teacher of Italian-Irish origin, and soon married her. They had two children.

In 1933 Illy founded illycaffè, which invented the first automatic coffee machine that substituted pressurized water for steam. The Illetta became the predecessor of today's espresso machine.

His son, the food chemist Ernesto Illy (1925–2008) took over the management of the coffee company, which is now in the hands of the third generation Illys.