Articoli rivista
Strumenti del passato
Anno LV – n.1 – gennaio/marzo 2022 Esperimenti spettacolari con scintille e scariche elettriche
Amazing experiments, performed with the first electrostatic machines, showed sparks and electric discharges emanating from charged bodies. The use of more efficient equipment also allowed researchers to investigate the properties of electric discharges, even thanks to specially designed devices, such as the paper and the glass perforators. […]
Anno LVIII - n.3-4 - luglio/dicembre 2025 Il banco di Ampère
The Ampère table is an experimental apparatus designed by André-Marie Ampère in 1820 to demonstrate how electric currents interact with each other or with a magnet. With this instrument, Ampère demonstrated these forces to the members of the French Academy of Sciences. Instruments like this were used for a long time in high schools to repeat the same experiments conducted by Ampère. He also used the table during his physics lectures at the Collège de France starting in 1824. The Ampère table consists of two mobile electrical circuits that interact with each other when they are traversed by an electric current, causing them to align. To create the mobile contacts in the electrical circuits, a small cup of mercury is required. For this reason, Ampère tables are no longer used in schools and are now of historical interest only. […]
Anno LVI - n.1 - gennaio/marzo 2023 Il fonautografo di Koenig a Roma
This article mainly illustrates the rediscovery of a rare phonautograph builted by Rudolph Koenig, one of the best makers of scientific instruments of the nineteenth century, at the Liceo Classico “Pilo Albertelli” in Rome. There are also references to the person of Koenig, […]
Anno LIX - n.1-2 - gennaio/giugno 2026 Le ragioni del cuore e di un nome sbagliato
A relatively common item in 18th- and 19th-century school laboratories was a box that enabled various educational experiences on magnetism to be set up. One of the best-kept kits was produced by the Adams company in London, and I had the adventure of being able to see and investigate two very curious aspects of it. […]
Anno LIV – n.2 – aprile/giugno 2021 Quando scocca la scintilla
Among the first electrostatic machines, the one developed by Edward Nairne, a skilled English instrument maker of the second half of the eighteenth century, should be mentioned. This electrostatic generator is little known, however it was used in medical field for over a century. […]
Anno LIV – n.3 – luglio/settembre 2021 Una ricombinazione problematica
In 1666 Newton used a glass prism to decompose white light and make the so-called “rainbow” colors appear. The next step was to get the white light back from that “rainbow”. To do this, different techniques can be adopted, we will examine one in particular, […]