In memory of grandfather Teresio

Teresio Gassino—born in 1924 in Arè, the son of an artisan blacksmith—graduates as a mechanical designer in 1942 from the Olivetti “Mechanical Training Center”, and in 1944 he is already contributing to the very first calculating machine projects by the mechanical design prodigy at Olivetti Natale Capellaro (**): «I remember the first task I assigned you. It was a review of a study of mine of a cam of the 14, that you botched because of a trivial oversight but at the same time it gave me the measure of your mastery in drawing».

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In 1945 he is the technical coordinator of the entire MC14 project, and, from 1948 on, he cooperates directly with Capellaro in designing every calculating machine, from 1951 taking an active part in defining the MC21, the Divisumma, the Tetractys, the Audit and following models. Capellaro’s right hand for years, he takes his place as chief of the “Calculating Machines and Writer Equipment Projects Office” in 1964, just to leave in 1969 already: in the meantime the electronic era has taken over.

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During that time, together with the mechanical unit of Olivetti designers, Teresio throws down a final challenge to the new technology with the Logos 27, superautomatic calculator, «certainly—in the words of famed manager Elserino Piol—the most complete and highly performant mechanical calculating machine ever made in the world», of which «every single device [...] was a jewel of ingenuity and creativity». Logic and Mathematics are translated into sheet metal, rotating shafts, ratchets, gears: 3700 pieces traveling at speeds up to 1000 cycles per minute, to the limits of Olivetti's hallmark mechanics, characterized by «soft signals, not relying on strength, suitable to transfer and manipulate the lightness of information». Complex to build and maintain, with the market now loving electronics, the Logos rests as an ode to a never realized mechanical-based future for calculation.

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After leaving Olivetti, Teresio goes on designing machines, meanwhile dedicating himself to winemaking in his new home in Tuscany, an activity which in 1981 wins him the Douja d’Or national prize in Asti for the Vernaccia di San Gimignano  wine “La Quercia di Racciano“ (“The Oak of Racciano”). He departs from us too early in 1998, in his last days at the hospital always holding ready in one hand the pencil for his latest “CS-2” project—a cheque book dispenser machine he couldn't finish developing, taken forward by his son Massimo.

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It’s 1953 when Teresio entrusts the project of the house where he will live, with wife Ernesta and their children, to Eduardo Vittoria, the architect behind the Olivetti building housing the “Studies and Experiences Center”, the kingdom of mechanical designers. I like to picture him by the drawing table late at night, to the sound of his beloved classical music, from his home window gazing at the lights coming from the Studies Center building, looking for inspiration for a new virtuoso at the edge of mechanics. Today, the masterpieces of his ingenuity lay in the custody of the dust in the museums: metal hacks inspiring the fascination of haute horlogerie complications, or, traveling with one’s imagination, visions from retrofuture science fiction. The stories of the people who gave life to the machines and the places they used to populate are an inspiration to explore the possibilities our actual future can hold.

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A hundred and ten years after the foundation of Olivetti, its hallmark architectures have been recognised as part of the UNESCO cultural heritage: designed by Vittoria, among them is Villa Gassino, the house where Teresio used to live, the great mechanical designer who disappeared twenty years ago—my Grandfather.