) was a Hungarian financial accountant, bookkeeper and inventor of
coffee machinery.

Illy was brought up in Temesvár where he studied economics. After secondary school he moved to Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, where he worked for two big Transylvanian companies.
At the age of 22 he was conscripted

Conscription

Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...

 into the Austro-Hungarian Army

Austro-Hungarian Army

The Austro-Hungarian Army was the ground force of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy from 1867 to 1918. It was composed of three parts: the joint army , the Austrian Landwehr , and the Hungarian Honvédség .In the wake of fighting between the...

, and served from 1914 at almost every front of the First World War, including at the Battle of Kraśnik

Battle of Krasnik

The Battle of Kraśnik started on August 23, 1914 in the province of Galicia and the adjacent areas across the border in the Russian Empire, in northern Austria , and ended two days later. The Austro-Hungarian First Army defeated the Russian Fourth Army. It was the first victory by Austria-Hungary...

 and the Battles of the Isonzo

Battles of the Isonzo

The Battles of the Isonzo were a series of 12 battles between the Austro-Hungarian and Italian armies in World War I. They were fought along the Soča River on the eastern sector of the Italian Front between June 1915 and November 1917...

.

After the war he stayed with his sister in Trieste

Trieste

Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...

, where he soon married a Triestine woman. He found work with companies dealing with cocoa and coffee roasting

Coffee roasting

Roasting coffee transforms the chemical and physical properties of green coffee beans into roasted coffee products. The roasting process is what produces the characteristic flavor of coffee by causing the green coffee beans to expand and to change in color, taste, smell, and density...

. 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.

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

Espresso machine

An espresso machine is used to produce the traditional Italian coffee beverage called espresso.-History:The first machine for making espresso was built and patented by Angelo Moriondo of Turin, Italy, who demonstrated a working example at the Turin General Exposition of 1884. He was granted patent no...

.
His son, the food chemist Ernesto Illy

Ernesto Illy

Ernesto Illy was an Italian food chemist and businessman, known as the chairman of the Illycaffè S.p.A coffee manufacturer...

(1925-2008) took over the management of the coffee company, which is now in the hands of the third generation Illy's.