Antonio Pacinotti (17 June 1841 – 24 March 1912) was an Italian
physicist, who was Professor of Physics at the
University of Pisa.
Biography
Pacinotti was born in
Pisa
Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the cit ...
, where he also died. He was the son of Luigi Pacinotti and Caterina Catanti, attended the ''istituto arcivescovile Santa Caterina'', and took part in the second war of Italian independence as ''sergente volontario''. He was a student of
Carlo Matteucci and graduated in mathematics at Pisa under Riccardo Felici. He was appointed as assistant to the astronomer
Giovanni Battista Donati
Giovanni Battista Donati (; 16 December 182620 September 1873) was an Italian astronomer.
Donati graduated from the university of his native city, Pisa, and afterwards joined the staff of the Observatory of Florence in 1852. He was appointed d ...
in 1862, professor at the technological institute of
Bologna in 1864, professor of physics at the
University of Cagliari
The University of Cagliari ( it, Università degli Studi di Cagliari) is a university in Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy. It was founded in 1606 and is organized in 11 faculties.
History
The ''Studium Generalis Kalaritanum'' was founded in 1606 alon ...
in 1873, and, finally, successor to his father in 1881 in the chair of technological physics at the
University of Pisa. Among his students was
Augusto Righi.
Pacinotti died in Pisa.
Scientific studies and invention of the dynamo
He is best known for inventing an improved form of
direct-current electrical generator, or
dynamo, which he built in 1860 and described in a paper published in ''
Il Nuovo Cimento
''Nuovo Cimento'' is a series of peer-reviewed scientific journals of physics. The series was first established in 1855, when Carlo Matteucci and Raffaele Piria started publishing ''Il Nuovo Cimento'' as the continuation of ''Il Cimento'', wh ...
'' of 1865. It used a ring armature around which was wrapped a coil of wire, to produce a smoother current than that available from previous types of dynamo. He found that the device could also be used as an
electric motor.
In July 1862, Pacinotti was one of several independent discoverers of the
comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...
.
Lungarno Pacinotti, an embankment of the
Arno River
The Arno is a river in the Tuscany region of Italy. It is the most important river of central Italy after the Tiber.
Source and route
The river originates on Monte Falterona in the Casentino area of the Apennines, and initially takes a s ...
in Pisa, is named after him.
LUNGARNO PACINOTTI
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References
External links
*
Anthology of Italian Physics, entry for Antonio Pacinotti, from the website of the University of Pavia
La prima macchina dinamo-motore di Antonio Pacinotti
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pacinotti, Antonio
1841 births
1912 deaths
19th-century Italian physicists
19th-century Italian astronomers
19th-century Italian inventors
People associated with electricity
University of Cagliari faculty
University of Pisa faculty
