Luigi Puccianti (; 11 June 1875 – 9 June 1952) was an Italian physicist.

Career

In 1899–1900, Puccianti constructed a highly sensitive

spectrograph An optical spectrometer (spectrophotometer, spectrograph or spectroscope) is an instrument used to measure properties of light over a specific portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, typically used in spectroscopic analysis to identify mate ...

, with which he studied the infrared absorption of many compounds and attempted to correlate the spectra with molecular structure. He studied the emission spectra of metals and

halogen The halogens () are a group in the periodic table consisting of five or six chemically related elements: fluorine (F), chlorine (Cl), bromine (Br), iodine (I), astatine (At), and tennessine (Ts). In the modern IUPAC nomenclature, this grou ...

s and proposed measuring the wavelength of

X-rays An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30&nbs ...

by using a diffraction grating at large angles of incidence. Puccianti was, at one time, the academic advisor to

Nobel prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

winner

Enrico Fermi Enrico Fermi (; 29 September 1901 – 28 November 1954) was an Italian (later naturalized American) physicist and the creator of the world's first nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1. He has been called the "architect of the nuclear age" an ...

. He once said there was little he could teach Fermi, and often asked Fermi to teach him something instead.

References

20th-century Italian physicists 1875 births 1952 deaths {{Italy-physicist-stub