Thus began Matilde Serao on the pages of “Il Mattino” newspaper of Naples in 1899. “For only 10 cents” continued the famous journalist (the first Italian woman to have founded and directed a newspaper, “Il Corriere di Roma”, and multiple candidate for the Nobel Prize for literature) “you can take advantage of this brilliant idea: the usual two pennies that, thrown into the slot of an automatic machine, instead of giving you the view of a country, of which you don’t care, or a mediocre chocolate, or a bad candy, they give you nothing less than accident insurance”.

Generali had the foresight to be the first to acquire the technology of a cutting-edge company and to promote it in a specific phase of Italian history, that of the “industrial take-off”, installing it in Naples, as the illustrious writer recalls, as well as in the main stations of the country, to allow passengers to protect themselves against accidents during their trips: an automatic and instant refund guarantee, without the need for signatures and bureaucratic complications. A true forerunner of on-demand insurance.

More specifically, it is an automatic dispenser of accident insurance policies. Manufactured by the Milan firm Ceretti & Tanfani specialising in the construction of suspended transport, it could be seen in the main Italian railway stations until the 1920s.

The dispenser was first shown to the general public at the 1898 Italian General Exposition in Turin by Anonima Infortuni of Milan, a company of the Generali Group founded in 1896. Linked to the travel ticket, the policy was issued after introducing a ten-cent coin into the dispenser, and was valid for twenty-four hours from the date on which the ticket was issued. The insurance covered any injuries sustained while travelling by train or steamboat.

The Trieste Archive still has some of the papers behind this curious jewel of engineering, also linked to the Turin Exposition, an international exhibition celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Albertine Statute: some tickets, policy conditions, brochure and the general plan of the Exposition, as well as the advertising pamphlet of the exhibitor company and related sketches.

Simple testimonies, but of great historical value, which show how the great Universal Exhibitions have always been a showcase of the world: opportunities for sharing and comparing experience and technology and precious indices of the degree of development of exhibitors, with their wealth of inventions and authentic marvels.