Inventors and Inventions of Italy

[Strengthandhonour]

ANEMOMETER
The anemometer is a device that measures the speed of the wind (or other airflow, like in a wind tunnel). The first anemometer, a disc placed perpendicular to the wind, was invented in 1450 by the Italian architect Leon Battista Alberti. Robert Hooke, an English physicist, later reinvented the anemometer. In 1846, John Thomas Romney Robinson, an Irish physicist, invented the spinning-cup anemometer. In this device, cups are attached to a vertical shaft; when the cups spin in the wind, it causes a gear to turn.BAROMETER
A barometer is a device that measures air (barometric) pressure. It measures the weight of the column of air that extends from the instrument to the top of the atmosphere. There are two types of barometers commonly used today, mercury and aneroid (meaning "fluidless"). Earlier water barometers (also known as "storm glasses") date from the 17th century. The mercury barometer was invented by the Italian physicist Evangelista Torricelli (1608 - 1647), a pupil of Galileo, in 1643. Torricelli inverted a glass tube filled with mercury into another container of mercury; the mercury in the tube "weighs" the air in the atmosphere above the tube. The aneroid barometer (using a spring balance instead of a liquid) was invented by the French scientist Lucien Vidie in 1843.BATTERY
Count Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta (Feb. 18, 1745- March 5, 1827) was an Italian physicist (at the University of Pavia) who invented the chemical battery (also called the voltaic pile) in 1800. This invention provided the first generator of continuous electrical current. Volta also discovered (and isolated) methane gas, CH4 (in 1778). He had earlier invented the electrophorus, a device that generated static electricity charges (in 1775). The volt, the unit of electrical potential, was named for Volta in 1881. For more information on Volta, click here.

CATAPULT
The catapult is a device that hurls heavy objects or arrows over a large distance. It was invented in ancient Greece in 399 BC by Dionysius the Elder of Syracuse. The Romans later added wheels to the catapult to make it more maneuverable. The catapult (also called the ballista) was a major weapon of warfare for well over a thousand years. A double-armed catapult (also called the trebuchet) was invented by Mariano Taccola of Siena during the Middle Ages, about 1400 AD.DA VINCI, LEONARDO
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was an Italian inventor, artist, architect, and scientist. Da Vinci had an interest in engineering and made detailed sketches of the airplane, the helicopter (and other flying machines), the parachute, the submarine, the armored car, the ballista (a giant crossbow), rapid-fire guns, the centrifugal pump (designed to drain wet areas, like marshes), ball bearings, the worm gear (a set of gears in which many teeth make contact at once, reducing the strain on the teeth, allowing more pressure to be put on the mechanism), and many other incredible ideas that were centuries ahead of da Vinci's time.

For more information on da Vinci, click here.

EYEGLASSES
Eyeglasses with convex lenses for correcting farsighted vision were probably invented in Italy around the year 1268-1284, perhaps by Salvino D'Armate of Pisa or by Alessandro Spina of Florence. Early glasses were also made in China around the same time. The earliest glasses did not have arms, they perched on the bridge of the nose. Eyeglasses with concave lenses for nearsightedness (or myopia) were not invented until the 1400s.

Glasses with arms were invented in the 1600s. Bifocals (combining convex and concave lenses to correct both nearsightedness and farsightedness) were invented by Benjamin Franklin around 1775. Glasses with hinged arms were invented in 1752 by James Ayscough. Ayscough also made the first sunglasses (glasses with green- or blue-tinted lenses). Polarizing filters (which are very effective at filtering out glare) were invented by Edwin H. Land (and patented in 1929). Kathering J. Blodgett (1898-1979) invented a micro-thin barium stearate lens coating that made glass completely nonreflective and "invisible" (patent #2,220,660, March 16, 1938).

GALILEI, GALILEO
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was an Italian mathematician, astronomer, and physicist. Galileo found that the speed at which bodies fall does not depend on their weight and did extensive experimentation with pendulums.

In 1593 Galileo invented the thermometer. In 1609, Galileo was the first person to use a telescope to observe the skies (after hearing about Hans Lippershey\'s newly-invented telescope). Galileo discovered the rings of Saturn (1610), was the first person to see the four major moons of Jupiter (1610), observed the phases of Venus, studied sunspots, and discovered many other important phenomena. For more information on Galileo, click here.

MARCONI, GUGLIELMO
Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937) was an Italian inventor and physicist. In 1895, Marconi promoted and popularized the radio (wireless telegraphy), building machinery to transmit and receive radio waves. His first transmission across an ocean (the Atlantic Ocean) was on December 12, 1901. Marconi won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1909.PARACHUTE
A parachute is a device for slowing down one's descent while falling to the ground. Parachutes are used to skydive from airplanes, to jump from very high places, and to help slow down the descent of spacecraft. Parachutes are also used to slow down some race cars. The early parachutes were made from canvas (a strong cotton cloth). Light-weight (but very strong) silk cloth was then introduced for parachutes. Modern-day parachutes use nylon fabric. The idea of using a parachute to fall gently to the ground was written about by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). The first parachute was demonstrated by Louis-Sébastien Lenormand in 1783 of France - he jumped from a very tall tree carrying two parasols (umbrellas). A few years later, some adventurous people jumped from hot-air balloons using primitive parachutes. The first person to jump from a flying airplane (and survive the fall) was Captain Albert Berry, who jumped from a U.S. Army plane in 1912. Parachutes were first used in war towards the end of World War 1.

PIANO
The modern piano (the pianoforte) was developed from the harpsichord around 1720, by Bartolomeo Cristofori of Padua, Italy. His new instrument had a delicate pianissimo (very soft sound), a strong fortissimo (a very loud, forceful sound), and every level in between. The first upright piano was made around 1780 by Johann Schmidt of Salzburg, Austria. Thomas Loud of London developed an upright piano whose strings ran diagonally (in 1802), saving even more space.

RADIO
The radio was invented by Nikola Tesla. The radio was promoted and popularized by Guglielmo Marconi in 1895. The first radio transmission across an ocean (the Atlantic Ocean) occurred on December 12, 1901.SCISSORS
Scissors were invented thousands of years ago (roughly 1500 B.C.) in ancient Egypt. Early scissors have been found in ancient Egyptian ruins. These early scissors were made from one piece of metal (unlike modern scissors, which are made from two cross-blades which pivot around a fulcrum). Modern cross-bladed scissors were invented in ancient Rome (roughly 100 A.D.). Early scissors were used by clothes makers and barbers. Scissors were not in common use until much later, in the 1500's (in Europe).
Galileo GalileiTHERMOMETER
The thermometer was invented by Galileo Galilei in 1593. His thermometer consisted of water in a glass bulb; the water moved up and down the bulb as the temperature changed.TORRICELLI, EVANGELISTA
Evangelista Torricelli (1608 - 1647) was an Italian physicist who invented the mercury barometer (in 1643) and made improvements to the microscope. Torricelli was a pupil of Galileo. Torricelli inverted a glass tube filled with mercury into another container of mercury; the mercury in the tube "weighs" the air in the atmosphere above the container. A barometer is a device that measures air (barometric) pressure. It measures the weight of the column of air that extends from the instrument to the top of the atmosphere. There are two types of barometers commonly used today, mercury and aneroid (meaning "fluidless").VOLTA, ALESSANDRO
Count Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta (Feb. 18, 1745- March 5, 1827) was an Italian physicist (at the University of Pavia) who invented the chemical battery (also called the voltaic pile) in 1800. This invention provided the first generator of continuous electrical current. Volta also discovered (and isolated) methane gas, CH4 (in 1778). He had earlier invented the electrophorus, a device that generated static electricity charges (in 1775). The volt, the unit of electrical potential, was named for Volta in 1881. For more information on Volta, click here.

YO-YO</FONT>
The yo-yo is one of the oldest toys. Yo-yo's have been used as a toy for over 2,500 years, when the ancient Romans played with wooden and metal yo-yo's. The word "yo-yo" may come from Tagalog language (the language of the Philippines), meaning "to come back."ZAMBONI, FRANK J.
Frank J. Zamboni (1901-1988) was an Italian-American inventor and mechanic who invented the Zamboni Ice Resurfacing Machine in 1949. His machine is used in ice rinks to resurface marred ice. In 1939, Zamboni and his brother Lawrence built a 20,000-square-foot enclosed ice skating rink in Paramount, California, USA. Resurfacing the ice was a major problem, and took many men and assorted equipment. In 1942, Zamboni transformed a tractor to scrape and smooth the ice in a single pass. After years, he perfected his it, releasing his "Model A Zamboni Ice Resurfacer" in 1949, (patent #2,642,679). The Olympic medal-winner Sonja Henie was one of his first customers.

[Figlio della Lupa]

And that of course is only a fraction of the total. If we listed all of our inventions, we'd surpass the bandwith and crash the site.

[Strengthandhonour]

Originally Posted by Figlio della Lupa

And that of course is only a fraction of the total. If we listed all of our inventions, we'd surpass the bandwith and crash the site.

Hey, Feel welcome to contribute more to the thread if you want, and same for the rest of the Italianos here

[Figlio della Lupa]

Originally Posted by Strengthandhonour

Hey, Feel welcome to contribute more to thread if you want, and same for the rest of the Italianos here

Sicuramente farò un po' di ricerca. E dove le hai prese queste informazioni?

[Figlio della Lupa]

Gabriele Fallopio - Inventor of the goldone (aka condom)
http://www2.rz.hu-berlin.de/sexology...he_condom.html
Un'invenzione benedetta e maledetta.


History of espresso caffettiere - An Italian/European tradition
http://www.cs.usyd.edu.au/~bob/Coffee/timeline.html


A nice little collection of inventers here - http://inventors.about.com/od/italianinventors/

[Strengthandhonour]

Originally Posted by Figlio della Lupa

Sicuramente farò un po' di ricerca. E dove le hai prese queste informazioni?

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/inventors/italy.shtml

[Amedeo]

Italian Power-Technologists in the Age of the Recontrivane (since the 17th century):

THE AGE OF THE RECONTRIVANCE. © by Amedeo Amendola, 2002.
Part 1.

We live in a culture which involves the reshaping, re-forging, or re-contriving of the former one, namely the culture of the Renaissance. By "culture" here I mean the complex of
interrelationships of man and his environment, as well as the social behaviours related to such complexes. (By "man" or "he" I mean "human being," whether male or female.)

The Recontrivance has various facets, a conspicuous one being "power technology," which I will delve into before I barely mention other facets.

I ----- Power Technology

At first, man's interaction with the environment involved the use of things, whether static or energetic: water, fruits, fire (as by moving close to it for waming purposes), and so forth. (Of course, a user necessarily utilizes, albeit spontaneously or unpremeditatively, his own muscle power.) He started using certain things not consumptively, but for the sake of making useful things, such as tools, stone-huts, and boats. Reflectively speaking on our part, he exploited certain properties or potentials of things: the flaking of a certain stone to make a knife, the weight of stones to make a wall, or the softness of a log to remove parts of it. This is "homo faber," the maker of artifacts. The progressive artificer produced fire (to cook animals, for instance) and used rollers, the prototypes of the wheel. Then, while continuing to be a user and an artificer, he started harnessing (putting under his control, utilizing) static and energetic things in his envirnoment: wet soil for incubating seeds, animals (to carry, to pull), water-mills for grinding seeds, and so forth. When he constructs a needed apparatus (with the water-wheel, the grinding wheel, etc.), he is producing a machine. (The running water and the apparatus make up a grinding system.)
Innumerable types of machines were created until the advent of the Recontrivance, when power-generating machines or power generators began to be invented. The following is a brief survey of the invention of power generators, not a history of power technology or of the modes of social behaviour that are related to a power technology society.

-1- The earliest power system was that of steam. The system requires water, fuel (burning wood or coal), and a power generating apparatus. (When fire is used to boil water in a pot, the pot -- or the wheel of a water-mill -- conducts or transmits power; it
does not generate power.) Two systems of steam using power generators:

(A) In one of his drawings, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) shows a cylindrical container with a lid-like plate that fits snuggly inside the container. This lid is held from above by a rope. By a system of pulleys (which had been discovered long ago), the rope is connected to a rock, which is the object intended to be moved. The lid will slide up and down according to the amount of steam pressure caused by the heated water in the ENCLOSED cylinder. (The principle of power generation is sound, but one can see the great limitations or poor efficiency of the system, since, in order for the lid to be able to slide, some steam will unavoidably escape.)

(B) In his "Natural Magic" of 1606, Dalla Porta describes a water drainage pump which consists of a steam apparatus. In this case, however, it is not the steam preassure that is utilized to bring stagnant water from a lower to an upper level; the apparatus or machine works on the basis of the cooling or condensation of contained steam throught the use of an external stream of cool water, wherefore suction is created. (This ingenious device was probably invented in Siena, which has a rich history of technological development.) In 1643, Torricelli, the experimental scientist who had bee the pupil of Galileo, explained that the water is not really sucked into a vacuum; it is forced into the vacuum by the atmospheric pressure on the water sediment. Hence, here there is a natural limitation as to the height to which sedimentary water can be raised.

The Marquis of Worchester experimented with a steam pump of the Dalla Porta type in 1654. progress was made by Denis Papin in 1690 by the use of both methods: The lid of the cylinder had a rod (or piston) in the outside direction (for the imparting of power); the piston is caused to advance by steam pressure and to recede by condensation. Eventually Newcomen's steam engine (1705 in England) was a practical and efficient machine and can be said to inaugurate the Steam Industrial Era (sometimes called the Industrial Age). James Watt (Scotland, 1783-1819) perfected the world of power machinery. Thus the Age of the Recontrivance can be said to begin effectively at the beginning of the 18th century. This is the point in history which -- using words a bit vaguely -- divides energetic technology and dynamic technology, or energetically technological culture and dynamically technological culture. If this new technology disappeared, our living relationships with the environment would be essential neolithic in character.

-2- As I pointed out, before the 18th century many machines were created, but they were not power machines. However, by using the word "machine" or by understanding a power generator as a continuous power source, nobody has realized that actually a power generator was created before the Age of the Recontrivance. I am talking about the cannon. Etymologists inform us that the English or the French word comes from the Latin "canna," meaning reed, banboo-type tube, or barrel. But a cannon is not a canna. The word comes from the Italian "cannone," meaning big canna or big barrel. The earliest reported use of the cannon was in the siege of Bologna in 1216. Cannon bombing was used by Count Novello in 1261. And then the history of the cannon throughout Europe continues.

The barrel of a cannon serves to deliver a projectile or missile in a certain direction; the engine proper consists of a sturdy metallic closed chamber in which an explosion is caused. The opening to a ball containing barrel in controlled. Upon pulling the plug, the gas pressure from the chamber propels the ball, and so forth. The combustible material is called gun-powder, which some people imagine Marco Polo imported from China. But the fact is that the Italian cannon was already in use in 1216, and Marco Polo lived between 1254 and 1324. (Macheroni were also produced in Italy in ancient Roman times.)

In 1540, Biringuccio of Siena wrote his "On Pyrotechnics" (meaning "On Fire Techniques"), a finely illustrated book which deals with metallurgy, explosives, etc. It includes references to a four-phase cylinder-and-piston device (part of the mechanical machinery of the times). But in the 16th century, nobody put two and two together, namely the gun-powder chamber apparatus and this four-phase device whereby, instead of propelling a missile, wheels would be turned. Gears and transmission rods were already in use. So, a gun-powder motor-vehicle was feasible. Of course, there would have been a big practical problem with the needed repetitions of fueling and ignition!

[To Be Continued]

[Amedeo]

THE AGE OF THE RECONTRIVANCE
(Pt.2)

-3- The more advanced a power machine, the more it depends for its invention on both previous discoveries of facts and on technological inventions. They are not purely and simply excogitated by one human mind or all at once. A case in point: In 1673, the Dutch physicist Huygens went one step further than the cannon. He wrote that instead of a ball, a cannon could be supplied with a piston which is not ejected from the barrell. One application of this machine would be the ramming and knocking down of a city gate.

In England there was a search for power sources other than steam. In 1794, R. Street proposed an engine which would use a flame-ignited mixture of hydrogen and air. [Obviously in this article I am not even touching on the developments of physics, chemistry, etc.]

In Italy, Eugenio Barsanti (a physics professor at the University of Florence) and Felice Matteucci (a physical engineer) invented the internal combustion engine, a one-piston engine that employed inflammable spirits. They completed and announced their work in 1853 and obtained an international patent in 1854 (the No.1072, in London). They formed a manufacturing society. Their first engine was produced in the Benini shop (later called "Pignone and, today, "Nuovo Pignone"). It had the capacity of 8 horsepower. In 1856, the power-drill was created; the improved 20-horsepower version was produced at the Brera factory in Milan. In 1867, the Germans Otto and Langen won a prize for the internal combustion engine (a copy of the Barsant-Matteucci one) at the international Exhibition in Paris, despite the protests of those journalists who knew the truth and cried scandal. The Austrian Marcus used petroil as fuel and attached the engine to a carriage, thus producing the motor-car in 1875. In Italy, the automobile instustry was started by Ricordi-Benz in 1890. The first masterpieces of Italian engineering and design were created by Bugatti (1900s); the later ones were created by Ferrari (since 1947). During the second half of the 20th century, some of the greatest designers in the world were Pininfarina (first the father and then the son), Giugiaro, and Bertone. Both Italian engineering and styling were imitated for decades all over the world. Then came the Lamborghini... and the story continues.

-4- In the first century A.D., the Alexandrian Greek Hero constructed the aeropile, that is, a hollow metallic sphere held horizontally at opposite points but free to rotate. On a horizontal plane, at two points of a line perpendicular to the rotation axis, two spouts
had been produced such that the protruding lips were in opposition (on a plane vertical to the horizontal plane). When water was placed in the sphere and it was boiled, two jets of steam were produced which, upon hitting the lips of the spouts, made the sphere rotate. This is not a steam engine, since what is utilized is the impacting force of the jetting steam
(not the expansion or the condensation of the steam).

In 1629, in Italy, Branca proposed what we may call an "impulse turbine," that is a system which utilizes the jet of steam against the blades of a water mill-wheel, which, through gears, would drive pestels to pound and grind grain or other things. (This would replace water mills and wind mills.) In 1861, Verbiest designed a carriage whose wheels would move through gears activated by a Branca-type steam impulse turbine.

Impulse turbines operate by the impact of a steam blast and do not fit into the category of "reaction jet propulsion." Newton (1642-1727) conceived a jet propulsion carriage as a direct application of his Law of Action and equal but opposite Reaction. In practice, it was Stipa, of the Italian Air Ministry, that tested the theory of jet propulsion for aircrafts.
(Like the motor-car, the internal combustion engine airplane had already been devised.) In 1927, the Caproni-Stipa jet aircraft was built; it reached 81 miles per hour in 1932. In 1940, the Caproni-Campini aircraft flew at 233 miles per hour. Thus the former forms of aviation were superseded. The turboject involved air received through the nose of the craft, which was then compressed, heated, and released through a controllable nozzle. In Germany they started using gas-powered jet aircrafts in 1939.

A third line of jet propulsion takes the hint from the recoil of firearms. During the 15th century, Giovanni Da Fontana designed and built a torpedo powered by rockets. The weapon skimmed on water and, upon hitting a ship (which was made of wood), set it on fire. A "rocket" is basically a cane or tube with one contricted open end. When the gases resulting from the ignited explosives inside the tube are released, the tube moves forward, in the opposite direction of the released gases. ("Rocket" or "roccata" is a name used by analogy with a roccata or distaff loaded with wool or flax which a spinner holds.) Leonardo had similar rocket projects. Like a water torpedo, a sky rocket ("razzo") has two parts: The Cap or explosive-load chamber, and the rocket proper which makes the whole thing move.

Twentieth century rocketry was in search of liquid propellants to substitute gun-powder. A liquid propellant rocket was developed by the Russian Ziolkowsky in 1903. During World War II, nitroglycerine and nitrocellulose were used successfully. (Nitroglycerine is the artificial or laboratory compound produced by the Italian chemist Ascanio Sobrero in 1847. By the way, around 1871, the Swedish Nobel brothers developed dynamite from it.) German rocketry resulted in the V-2 missiles which were shot at London from a distance.

Space rocketry developed in the US especially after inheriting German research and personnel after the war. (An Italian American scientist was the earth captain, at NASA,
of the lunar expedition.) On the footsteps of American rocketry developments, Italy established its first launch pad (the first on the sea) and made its first successful launch in 1967, with Broglio as the scientific director. Concentrating on scientific experiments, Italy established the Italian Space Agency (ISA) and is a member of the European Space Agency (ESA).

-5- A pneumatic (air-compression) engine was developed by Vittorio Sorgato in 1974. His non-polluting and inexpensive pneumatic automobile reached a speed of 59 m.p.h.
However, even 20 years of driving around Milan, did not arouse the interest of the public, which pays heavily for the imported gasoline.

[Amedeo]

THE AGE OF THE RECONTRIVANCE
(Pt. 3)

-6- Some electrical phenomea have been observed from time immemorial. ("Electric" comes fro the Greek "elektron," that is, amber). The English William Gilbert (1544-1603) found that, as the Greeks had noticed, amber and some other materials will, upon being rubbed, attract very light objects (which are immune to the lodestone, the natural magnet). Thus certain things were said to have electic power. In the 17th and 18th centuries, phenomena of repulsion, conduction, and insulation were also noticed. Hence, electricity
was conceived as a kind of fluid in bodies. Benjamin Franklin related lighting to electricity and spoke of the presence (positivity) or absence (negativity) of electricity.

In 1757, Caldani observed the contraction of frog muscles under the influence of electricity. In 1775, Alessandro Volta (Como, 1745-1827) devised the "electrophorus," an apparatus for charging a conductor by induction (that is, without contact). In 1780, Galvani produced contaction in a frog's leg by simply using claw-like pincers made of different metals -- one prong touching a muscle, and the other prong touching a nerve. It seemed that he was exploiting the electric fluid present in the frog. However, during his attempts to understand the Galvani phenomenon, Volta constructed the most revolutionary apparatus in the history of technology: an apparatus that generates a flow (current) of electricity, an electricity generator. It is called the Voltaic pile, that is a pile of metallic plates, made of copper and zinc, in alternation and interlaid with paper moistened in a salt or an acidic solution. When wires from the top and the bottom of the pile were brought together, various electic al phenomena were manifested. Thus, the Era of Electricity began in 1799. The technology of electrical power is so immense and so permeating that, without it, we would be living practically in Neolithic times. Electricity has also revolutionized the sciences, our conception of our natural world. Here I will touch only on a very few pertinent facts.

One of the early applications of electricity was made by Brugnatelli in 1805: electroplating. Electricity was instrumental in Morse's telegraphy, Meucci's telephony
(on which I will elaborate in the future), Marconi's radio (radio-telegraphy) and Solari's
radio-telephony [our pocket radio-sets employing electric batteries close to Volta's], the Roentgen tube and television, electric motors (including Italian works, such as Pacinotti's
electric generator/dynamo and Ferraris' polyphase induction motor), heating devises, lighting devises, computers, and so on to infinity.

Sir Humphrey Davy discovered that when electricity passes through two pole-connected sticks of coal and then the sticks are moved slightly apart, electricity continues to flow: a luminous arc persists between the two sticks. In 1874-76, Joseph Neri employed large batteries to illuminate San Francisco's Market Street by means of an arc-lamp of his own making. In France, De la Rue place a filament (between two live wires) in a glass bulb, but the lighting was very short-lived, as the filament burnt out. In 1879, the American Edison used a partial vacuum bulb, which increased the life of the lamp to four days. In 1886, Edison bought Arturo Malignani's patent, with the result that longer-lasting lamps and a greater quantity of lamps were created. (Today, the average life of a lamp is about one month of continuous lighting.)

-7- The impulsion power of natural steam (volcanic soffioni, steam-jets from the ground)
began to be exploited in the 20th century. It was during 1904-33 that Ginori-Conti and Bringhenti utilized the soffioni at Larderello, in Tuscany, to power an electricity generating plant. Their work became the world model for plants of so-called "geothermal electricity
generation." (It is true that the Earth's heat is responsible for the production of steam, but it is not heat of the soffioni which is being utilized. "Impulsion electricity generation" is a more correct term.) Incidentally, more than 10% of Italy's electricity is from some 155 soffioni plants; the greater supply comes from some 2666 hydro-electric plants
(that is, cascade impulsion). At least until some years ago, there were six nuclear [nuclear fission] plants for generating electricity.

[Amedeo]

THE AGE OF THE RECONTRIVANCE
(Pt. 4 - Conclusion)

-8- The 20th century in particular can be called the Age of Radiophony [radio or wireless telephony], the Atomic Age, the Space Age, the Age of Tele-Communication (with the
comptuter as the conspicuous instrument, which employes the electric chip developed in America), etc.

In the course of the development of science and inventions, the time arrived for the transmutation of the elements, the alchemist's old dream. (Spontaneous transmutation is due to the natural radioactoivity of certain elements.) Some indivisibles (atoms) can be divided in a manner of speaking: that is atomic fission, which results in the emission of atomic "energy." To harness (regulate, control) this energy -- analogously to the harnessing of steam -- Enrico Fermi (Rome, 1901-1954) was recruited by the US in 1939. In Rome, he and other top scientists of the century had been given one gram of uranium to experiment with. So, in the US he built and successfully tested his "atomic pile" in 1942: a chain-reaction transmutation was accomplished and regulated. (The US President was notified by a code phrase: "Columbus has landed!") As Volta inaugurated the Age of Electricity, Fermi inaugurated the Atomic Age. Atomic energy can be used for the generation of electricity, which in turn is the blood-stream of technological artifacts.

Incidentally, Italy has exported many scientists to the US. A recent US immigrant is Federico Capasso, who made a revolutionary invention called "quantum cascade laser" in 1994. (Some Italian come as visiting teachers, like a young cousin of mine, astro-physicist Luca Amendola, who has made many trips.)

-9- On the 500th anniversary of Cristoforo Colombo's successful Atlantic expedition, the first successful test was made to generate electyricity by utilizing the Earth's electromagnetic field. It was known since Faraday's experiments that an electric current can induce magnetism in a body, and that conversely, magnetism can induce an electric current, but just taking a looped wire over the earth does not result in electricity. (If this were the case, a properly disposed loop on the earth's surface would generate electricty, without the need of batteries, hydro-electric plants, and so forth.) Giuseppe Colombo and Mario Grossi are the ideators of the space project; they and other scientists invented a device which is held by a cable loop, wherefore it is popularly called a "tethered satellite." A NASA spacecraft was used to make the tethered satellite move above and across the earth. The two scientists aboard were Umberto Guidoni and Maurizio Cheli. A mishap with the US cable releasing mechanism (not necessarily a sabotage) almost ruined the experiment, as the cable snapped and the satellite was lost.. Two years later (1994), the success was confirmed. Thus, a spacecraft or a space station can provide its own electricity, the fuel being the earth's electro-magnetism. The success prompted the US, Russia, Japan, and some European counties to subsidize the Italian Alpha Space Station. Stefano Bianchi is in charge of the project. (I have tried in vain to find out from ISA if they are working exclusively on space projects, for I can envision ways of utilizing tethered satellites on the earth's surface and thus create new generators for us earthlings, clean and inexpensive and abundant and safe generators which will also outmode petroil and uranium and the like once for all.... The present big owners and governments will prevent projects which are beneficial to mankind.]
-------- ---
My original conception of the Recontrivance was stated in a first-draft book for class use,
"Philosophical Scenarion and Disquisitions" (R. F. Publishing, 1974). Under the topic of Technology I included some inventions which are not power-generators. For example, phonography (toward the end of the 19th century), photography (beginning in 1813), etc.
Certain inventions, like cinematography, have a complex origin; it depends on the arc-lamp or other lamp powered by electricty and on the discovery of photo-graphy and all that is involved in it. The technology since the beginning of the 18th century comprises mechanical, chemical, and power technologies. Here are a few reference books for the above, aside from encyclopedias and magazines:
-- Eco & Zorzoli: The Picture History of Inventions. (McMillan)
-- Lilley: Men, Machines and History. (International Publishers)
-- Finch: the Story of Engineering. (Doubleday)
-- Agostino Ramelli: Diverse et Artificiose Machine. (1588)

II ----- Other Facets of the Recontrivance

--- Development of Atomism: Dalton's New System (1808); Avogadro's and Cannizzaro's systems; consequences of electricity; radio-activity (Curie, Rutherford, etc.); Plank's Quantum theory; etc.

--- Evolutionism: Lamark, Spencer, Darwin, etc.

--- Defeudalization (the American , French, and Russian revolutions; etc.) The recontrived feudalism (Capitalism). The present movements toward a Third Position System (beyond Communism and Capitalism) in Europe and in America.

--- The Mathematical Recontrivance: Mathematical criticism: Saccheri, 1733. Non-Eucledian geometries: Lobachevski (1829); Bolyai; Georg Riemann and Luigi Bianchi (Parma, 1856-1928) , etc.

--- Psychology. Psychiatry. Criminology. Medical pathology and pharmaceutics. Genetics. Neuroscience.

--- Philosophy of History. [Vico: 1688-1744]. Economics. [Genovese (1712-1769]. Sociology: Comte (1798-1857). Archeology, etc.

--- A limited recontrivance of the arts after the breakdown at the beginning of the 20th century (Cubism, Futurism, Atonalism, etc.) The new arts: The Cinema (..., Bergman, Fellini, Antonioni, Pasolini,...)

----------------------- Provisional End ------------------------

[Per voi italiani: "recontrivance" is best expressed by "ricongegnamento."]

[Señor Malo]

Originally Posted by Strengthandhonour

Hey, Feel welcome to contribute more to the thread if you want, and same for the rest of the Italianos here

Hey, would anyone mind if I reopen this old thread about italian inventors & inventions?
Hope not Here I go
I add general science contributions:
Vincenzo Viviani:
Galileo's pupil and personal assitant during the last years of Galileo's life. Among his contributions we can count the merit of measuring the speed of sound

Vincenzo Viviani - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Enrico Fermi: inventor of the atomic pile and of nuclear reactor

Enrico Fermi - Biography


Pellegrino Turri;
Invented the first effective typpewriter (1806) and the carbonic paper used in modern typpewriters

Gaetano Arturo Crocco


He invented in 1929 the first Liquid-propellant rocket and before that he worked on early helicopters rotors

Gaetano Arturo Crocco - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Lucas Corso]

And don't forget the friulian Carlo Rubbia!!!
Carlo Rubbia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia