On the 22nd May 2007 we had the pleasure and the great honor to be received by Ing. Edgardo Velicogna, who was Ing. John Geloso’s closest collaborator in the design activity for 23 years and then became the company technical director and a member of the board of directors.
After the degree in Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano in 1946, he joined the team of the research laboratories thanks to his degree thesis about Geloso universal drafting machines (cad-cam hadn’t been already discovered at that time!) and the interest of his uncle (the legendary sales manager Mr Velicogna, who was in charge of Mr Viotti’s sales in the 30s, a business man who handled with electronic items and encouraged Ing. Geloso to stay in Italy after his return from the USA, where he experienced an important professional collaboration with the Pilot Company and obtained the degree in the local Cooper Square University).
The result of that encounter was the birth of the first Geloso production unit in via Sebenico in Milan in 1931. 
But let’s go back to 1946, an important year for Ing. Velicogna. Soon after he got his degree, Mr Geloso recognized that he was the most suitable figure to follow in his footsteps. In the fifties he designed anew the whole line of amplification products (which was the core business in the Geloso’s production) starting from the production elaborated previously in the 30s-40s by Ing. Negri, Ing. Geloso’s contemporary.
Ing. Velicogna’s substantial contribution gave Ing Negri the chance to dedicate himself to the development of the black and white television, a process which culminated in the presentation at the exhibition fair of Milan in 1949 of the first commercial television apparatus entirely designed and produced in Italy.
Along with this intense design activity, Ing. Velicogna started a parallel teaching career at the university, where he used to select some young postgraduates to join the Geloso’s workshops. Some examples are Ing. Marconi, Ing. Figini and Ing De Felip. The research activity brought him to file some patents.
The high importance of these works is still recognized by young university students, who often use Geloso’s monographs and material as part of their degree thesis.
After Ing. Geloso’s untimely death (1969), the political and trade-union situation in 1968, the orientation of the new management and the consequences of some disastrous company events in 1962 decided the progressive decline of the company.
Ing. Velicogna was then engaged by Philips, one of the biggest European corporations in the seventies based in Holland, to manage the production plants in Monza (Milano).
I have been deeply struck by an Ing. Velicogna’s consideration:
“ The example and the daily frequentation with Ing. Geloso guided my management career also after the experience in Geloso spa “
We appreciated so much the cordiality and the kindness showed by Ing. Velicogna in welcoming us. This has been a further boost to go on with the promotion of the Geloso web site in order not to forget an important industrial story led by John Geloso and some of his most closest collaborators, who many of us are still thankful to.
Note: In this occasion, Ing. Velicogna presented us with some photos, some Geloso publications and a project in Ing. Geloso’s own hand (see below), together with his personal G-570 (dictaphone).
E. Di Chiaro will surely keep this present in his world unique collection of Geloso registrators.
Milano, the 23rd May 2007
