Giovanni Battista Beccaria
Giovanni Battista Beccaria | |
---|---|
Born | Francesco Ludovico Beccaria 3 October 1716 |
Died | 27 May 1781 | (aged 64)
Nationality | Italian |
Known for | Elettricismo artificiale e naturale libri due |
Parent(s) | Giovanni Battista Beccaria Anna Maria Ingalis |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Experimental physics |
Institutions | University of Turin |
Notable students | Joseph-Louis Lagrange |
Giovanni Battista Beccaria FRS (Italian: [bekkaˈriːa]; 3 October 1716 – 27 May 1781)[1] was an Italian physicist. A fellow of the Royal Society, he published several papers on electrical subjects in the Phil. Trans.[2] Beccaria was one of Benjamin Franklin's more conspicuous correspondents.[3] His students included Joseph-Louis Lagrange, Giovanni Francesco Cigna, Giuseppe Angelo Saluzzo, and the successor to the Chair of physics, Antonio Vassalli Eandi; moreover, his researches inspired the physicists of Pavia, Alessandro Volta and Luigi Galvani.[4]
Beccaria did much, in the way both of experiment and exposition, to spread knowledge of the electrical researches of Benjamin Franklin and others. In 1753, he published an important treatise on electricity, "Elettricismo artificiale e naturale libri due", which was translated into English thanks to Franklin's interest.[4] His contributions include a classification of luminous discharges, the collection of data on atmospheric electricity, and the design of the electrical thermometer, whose invention is usually wrongly ascribed to Franklin's colleague, Ebenezer Kinnersley.[5] Franklin noted in a letter to Cadwallader Colden that "he (Beccaria) seems a Master of Method, and has reduc'd to systematic Order the scatter'd Experiments and Positions deliver'd in my Papers."[6] Joseph Priestley (in his "History and Present State of Electricity") declared Beccaria the "great Italian genius" who had "far surpassed everything done by French and English electricians."[7]
Life and works
Giovanni Battista Beccaria was born at
In May 1755 Beccaria was elected
His principal work is his treatise "Dell'elettricismo artificiale e naturale" (1753), which was translated into English in 1778.[2] Franklin considered "Dell'elettricismo" «one of the best pieces on the subject . . . in any language.»[10]
Other works are "Lettere sull'elettricismo" (1758); "Experimenta atque observationes quibus electricitas vindex late constituitur" (1769); and "Dell'elettricità terrestre atmosferica a cielo sereno" (1775), the first extended treatise on the subject of atmospheric electricity.[11]
Works
- Elettricismo artificiale (in Italian). Torino: Stamperia reale. 1772.
- Dell'elettricismo artificiale (in Italian). Vol. 1. Macerata: Antonio Cortesi. 1793.
- Gradus Taurinensis (in Latin). Torino: Stamperia reale. 1774.
- Della elettricità terrestre atmosferica a cielo sereno (in Italian). Torino. 1775.
- Lettere di un Italiano ad un Parigino intorno alle riflessioni del sig. Cassini de Thury sul grado torinese (in Italian). Firenze: Gaetano Cambiagi. 1777.
- Dell'elettricismo terrestre e atmosferico (in Italian). Vol. 2. Macerata: Antonio Cortesi. 1793.
Notes
- ^ Herbermann 1913.
- ^ a b Chisholm 1911.
- ^ Pace 1952, p. 406.
- ^ a b Cerruti, Luigi. “Dante's Bones: Geography and History of Italian Science, 1748–1870”, in Kostas Gavroglu (ed.), Sciences in the European Periphery During the Enlightenment (Dodrecht: Kluwer, 1999), p. 111.
- ISBN 9780520334595.
- ^ Benjamin Franklin to Cadwallader Colden, 30 August 1754. In L.W. Labaree (ed.). Papers of B. Franklin. Vol. V. New Haven-London: Yale University Press, 1961, p. 428.
- ^ Pace 1965.
- ^ a b Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1920). Encyclopedia Americana. .
- ^ "DServe Archive Persons Show". Royal Society. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
- ^ Benjamin Franklin to Thomas-François Dalibard, 29 June 1755 in Benjamin Franklin, Expériences et Observations sur l’Electricité faites à Philadelphie en Amérique, Thomas-François Dalibard, trans. (2d edit., 2 vols., Paris, 1756), II, 307–19 (online).
- ^ Good, Gregory (2003). "Atmospheric Electricity". In J. L. Heilbron (ed.). Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 67–68.
References
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Beccaria, Giovanni Battista". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 602. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Giovanni Battista Beccaria". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
- Pace, A. (1952). "The Manuscripts of Giambatista Beccaria, Correspondent of Benjamin Franklin". JSTOR 3143797.
- Heilbron, John L. (1970). "Beccaria, Giambatista". In C. C. Gillispie (ed.). Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol. 1. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 546–549. Retrieved 28 August 2023.
- Pace, Antonio (1965). "BECCARIA, Giambatista". ISBN 978-8-81200032-6.