From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Italian physicist (1841?1912)
"Pacinotti" redirects here. For Gianni Pacinotti, see
Gipi
.
Antonio Pacinotti
(17 June 1841 – 24 March 1912) was an Italian
physicist
, who was Professor of Physics at the
University of Pisa
.
Biography
[
edit
]
Pacinotti was born in
Pisa
, 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
in 1862, professor at the technological institute of
Bologna
in 1864, professor of physics at the
University of Cagliari
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
[
edit
]
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
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
.
[1]
In July 1862, Pacinotti was one of several independent discoverers of the
comet
109P/Swift-Tuttle
.
[2]
Lungarno Pacinotti
, an embankment of the
Arno River
in Pisa, is named after him.
[3]
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
|
---|
International
| |
---|
National
| |
---|
People
| |
---|
Other
| |
---|