Giuseppe Zara (

Fermo Fermo (; ancient: Firmum Picenum) is a town and ''comune'' of the Marche, Italy, in the Province of Fermo. Fermo is on a hill, the Sabulo, elevation , on a branch from Porto San Giorgio on the Adriatic coast railway. History The oldest huma ...

, 1856 –

Sanremo Sanremo, also spelled San Remo in English and formerly in Italian, is a (municipality) on the Mediterranean coast of Liguria, in northwestern Italy. Founded in Roman times, it has a population of 55,000, and is known as a tourist destination ...

, 1915) was an

Italia Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

n inventor. He was a member of the Società Italiana per le Strade Ferrate Meridionali, and the director of

Ferrovie dello Stato Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane S.p.A. (; ; previously only Ferrovie dello Stato, hence the initialism FS) is Italy's national state-owned enterprise, state-owned railway holding company that manages transport, infrastructure, real estate service ...

from 1905. He graduated at the Technical Institute of Fermo in 1875, and started working as a repairing operator in

Rimini Rimini ( , ; or ; ) is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. Sprawling along the Adriatic Sea, Rimini is situated at a strategically-important north-south passage along the coast at the southern tip of the Po Valley. It is ...

, he was later sent to

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

where he worked as a designer. In the emergency of having faster and cheaper trains, he invented a simple

bissel truck A Bissell or Bissel truck (also Bissel bogie or pony truck) is a single-axle bogie which pivots towards the centre of a steam locomotive to enable it to negotiate curves more easily. Invented in 1857 by and usually then known as a ''pony truck'' ...

system to replace Mogul 130 in steam locomotives ( « ''Carrello Italiano'' ») which was used from 1907 to 1930 not only in Italian train companies, but also in others like the

Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Orléans The ''Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Orléans'' (, PO) was an early French railway company. It merged with the '' Chemins de fer du Midi'' to form the '' Chemins de fer de Paris à Orléans et du Midi'' (PO-Midi) in 1934. In 1938 the PO ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

References

Sources

* ''Giuseppe Zara'', in ''Collegio Ingegneri Ferroviari Italiani'', a. 4, 7 (1915), n. 4, pp. 161–164 *Gianni Robert, ''Le ferrovie nel Mondo'', Milano, Vallardi, 1964, p. 514 *Guido Corbellini, ''Il cinquantenario delle Ferrovie dello Stato'', in ''1905-1955. Il Cinquantenario delle Ferrovie dello Stato'', in ''Collegio Ingegneri Ferroviari Italiani'', 10 (1955), n. 5-6, pp. 333-528, ISSN 0020-0956. Ristampe in volume: Roma, Collegio Ingegneri Ferroviari Italiani, 1955; Roma, Collegio Ingegneri Ferroviari Italiani-Ponte San Nicolò, Duegi, 2005, *Angelo Nascimbene, Aldo Riccardi, con la collaborazione di Federico Rigobello e Pierluigi Scoizzato, ''1905-2005. Cento anni di locomotive a vapore delle Ferrovie dello Stato'', in ''Tutto treno tema'', (2005), n. 20, pp. 53-56, 59. ISSN 1124-4232. 1856 births 1915 deaths Italian engineers People from Fermo {{Italy-engineer-stub