Augusto Righi

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Augusto Righi
Microwaves, Magnetic hysteresis
AwardsMatteucci Medal (1882)
Hughes Medal (1905)
Scientific career
Academic advisorsAntonio Pacinotti
Notable studentsGuglielmo Marconi

Augusto Righi (27 August 1850 – 8 June 1920) was an Italian physicist and a pioneer in the study of electromagnetism. He was born and died in Bologna.

Biography

Born in Bologna, Righi was educated in his home town, taught physics at Bologna Technical College between 1873 and 1880, and left to take up the newly established chair of physics at the University of Palermo. He was a professor of physics at the University of Padua (1885–89) and later returned to a professorship at the University of Bologna.

Righi's early research, conducted in Bologna between 1872 and 1880, was primarily in

vibrational motion, and discovered magnetic hysteresis in 1880. Whilst an ordinary professor in physics at the University of Palermo, he studied the conduction of heat and electricity in bismuth. From 1885 to 1889 in Padua, he studied the photoelectric effect. Towards the end of 1889, he was called to the University of Bologna, his home city, where he worked for the rest of his life on subjects such as the Zeeman effect, 'Roentgen rays', magnetism and the results of Michelson's experiments.[1]

spark transmitter (left) and coherer
detector Righi used in his experiments

His most well-known work is his 1890s investigations of Hertzian waves (

electromagnetic waves, differing only in frequency.[2] His work L'ottica delle oscillazioni elettriche (1897),[3] which summarised his results, is considered a classic of experimental electromagnetism. In 1903 Righi wrote a book on wireless telegraphy.[4]

Righi influenced the young Guglielmo Marconi the inventor of radio, who visited him at his lab. Marconi invented the first practical wireless telegraphy radio transmitters and receivers in 1894 using Righi's four-ball spark oscillator in his transmitters.

By 1900 he had begun to work on

X-rays and the Zeeman effect. He also studied gas under various conditions of pressure and ionization, and worked on improvements to the Michelson–Morley experiment from 1918.[5]

Moderna teoria dei fenomeni fisici, 1904

See also

References

  1. ^ A. Righi, La Materia radiante e i raggi magnetici, Zanichelli (1909)
  2. ISBN 978-0471783015
    .
  3. ^ Righi, Augusto (1897). L'ottica delle oscillazioni elettriche: Studio sperimentale sulla produzione de fenomeni analoghi ai principali fenomeni ottici per mezzo delle onde elettromagnetich (The optics of electric oscillations: Experimental study of phenomena analogous to optical phenomena by means of electromagnetic waves) (in Italian). Bologna, Italy: Nicola Zanichelli.
  4. ^ A. Righi, La Telegrafia Senza Filo (Wireless Telegraphy) (1901). See also A. Righi, Le nuove vedute sull'intima struttura della materia - Discorso pronunciato in Parma il 25 ottobre 1907 nel Congresso della Società italiana pel progresso delle scienze.
  5. ^ A. Righi, Modern Theory of Physical Phenomena, BiblioLife (2009).

Works

External links

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