The country's unification in 1861 favoured the modernization and development of the Kingdom of Italy. In 1863-1864, a company for the production of instruments for physics and optics was founded, among the others, by the astronomer Giovanni Battista Donati, the instrument-maker Giuseppe Poggiali, the physicist Tommaso Del Beccaro and the engineer and entrepreneur Angelo Vegni. In the late 1860s the firm utilized the mechanical workshop of the Regio Istituto Tecnico, in Via San Gallo, for some time. It was during this period that the name "Officina Galileo" appeared for the first time (later to become "Officine Galileo"). Around 1870 the company moved to the suburban quarter of the Cure, and a little later Innocenzo Golfarelli became its director. The production consisted mainly of instruments for physics and optics (microscopes and spectroscopes), telegraphic devices and electric clocks.