download report - Sapienza
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Scientific Report 2007-2009<br />
History of Physics and Physics Education<br />
H1. The early history of experimental physics at la <strong>Sapienza</strong><br />
(1746-1930)<br />
and the development of physics in Italy after WWII<br />
While the history of physics teaching at La <strong>Sapienza</strong> in<br />
post-unitary Italy is relatively known and there are several<br />
contributions on this subject, we have very scarce<br />
and fragmentary historical data related to the Papal<br />
States. Years ago I began to reconstruct this history<br />
from the concrete evidence preserved in the Museum of<br />
the Department of Physics (i. e. the oldest instruments<br />
kept in the Museum), from the small Archive of the Museum<br />
and from the documents in the Amaldi papers.<br />
A charming but very incomplete story came out which<br />
claimed closer attention, also based on input from scholars<br />
trained in the humanities who in the meantime had<br />
conducted a thorough research about the teaching of natural<br />
philosophy and mixed mathematics at the <strong>Sapienza</strong>;<br />
these courses are indeed the cultural roots of the course<br />
of physics in the modern sense.<br />
It thus begun a long and patient research, particularly<br />
in the Archivio di Stato in Roma, which houses a<br />
rich collection of documents on the history of the Roman<br />
University, and this research led to clarify many<br />
unknown aspects. The questions to be answered concern<br />
the long process of the detachment of physics from<br />
the natural philosophy, the introduction of the first experimental<br />
practices in teaching, the establishment of<br />
the first chair of experimental physics at La <strong>Sapienza</strong> in<br />
1746, and the first teachers (F. Jacquier, G.M. Fonda,<br />
B. Gandolfi, S. Barlocci) up to Paolo Volpicelli, which<br />
represents the transitional figure from the Papal Government<br />
to the new unified Italy. All along the research<br />
the comparison is considered with the Collegio Romano<br />
and the Accademia dei Lincei, trying to reconstruct the<br />
process of dissemination of physics. In this case the keystone<br />
for the understanding of the evolution of physics in<br />
Rome, no longer seen as the esoteric science of some isolated<br />
scholar but as a productive part of society, is the<br />
contribution of F. Scarpellini. Thanks to his activity<br />
physics was seen at last, from the time of the Enlightenment<br />
onwards, as an applied science bearer of progress.<br />
Scarpellini is the most important popularizer, between<br />
the eighteenth and the nineteenth century, of the experimental<br />
practice in physics, astronomy and mathematics,<br />
both for civilian and military purposes.<br />
Along with the first chair of experimental physics at<br />
the <strong>Sapienza</strong> was created in Rome the new profession<br />
of the macchinista. In this connection the research has<br />
better outlined the hitherto almost unknown story of<br />
an important family of scientific instrument makers, the<br />
Luswergh, which accompanied the teaching of Physics at<br />
the <strong>Sapienza</strong> until the middle of the nineteenth century.<br />
From 1872 on, the management of the Istituto Fisico by<br />
Blaserna and later on by Corbino, as is well known, sets<br />
down the conditions for the rise of the Roman school<br />
of physics. Referring to this period a few minor histories<br />
have been investigated, bearing some relevance to<br />
the history of the emerging electrotechnics, of paleomagnetism<br />
and of the early studies of cosmic rays.<br />
The prosecution of the historical investigation on<br />
Italian physics in the period following the second world<br />
War is a line of research started several years ago, which<br />
has already led to several results. Focusing on Edoardo<br />
Amaldi as the key figure ( a choice dictated, beside his<br />
eminent role in the organization of physics in Italy, by<br />
the availability of the huge documentary source of his<br />
personal archive, deposited at the Physics department<br />
in Rome), the research aims at a further refinement<br />
of the overall picture of the development of physics in<br />
postwar Italy. An intrinsic part of the research work is<br />
the localization, collection and proper arrangement of<br />
archival sources. Thanks to the work done in past years<br />
in this respect, already now the Physics department in<br />
Rome can easily claim to host the largest repository<br />
of personal papers of 20th century Italian physicists.<br />
New sources of the same kind are in the process of<br />
being acquired and catalogued (papers of G. Gentile jr.,<br />
G. Careri, C. Salvetti, V. Somenzi). The exploitation<br />
of these sources will allow to throw further light on<br />
key historical issues, such as the development of the<br />
Italian nuclear project in the fifties and sixties, and<br />
its relations with the research in fundamental nuclear<br />
physics, alongside with the institutional aspects of the<br />
question, which have already been the subject of an<br />
early investigation in the volume on the history of<br />
INFN published in 2001. A consistent fraction of the<br />
results of these enquiries will find its place as part of the<br />
reconstruction of the historical development of physics<br />
in Rome, which is the subject of a book to be completed<br />
shortly.<br />
References<br />
1. G. Battimelli, Giornale di storia contemporanea, n. 2<br />
(2007)<br />
2. G.Battimelli, in C. Gillispie, Complete Dictionary of<br />
Scientific Biography, Cengage Learning, New York (2008)<br />
3. G. Battimelli, in F. Ferroni, The legacy of Edoardo<br />
Amaldi in science and society, Società Italiana di Fisica,<br />
Bologna (2009)<br />
4. M.G. Ianniello, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani,<br />
Treccani, Roma (2008).<br />
Authors<br />
G. Battimelli, M.G. Ianniello<br />
<strong>Sapienza</strong> Università di Roma 172 Dipartimento di Fisica