PALVIS

ITALY (see also List of Individuals)

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25.8.1854 Venezia/I - 12.4.1933 Cremona/I

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Egidio Palvis received his civil engineering degree from the University of Padua in 1877. He started then his career as an officer of the Italian Royal Corps of civil engineers, the Regio Corpo del Genio Civile, where he went through all grades up to his final position as a chief engineer. The Italian system was similarly organized as in France and greatly contributed to the wealth of the infrastructure in terms of roads, bridges, railways and water courses.

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Palvis devoted a considerable time to flood defense structures as were necessary in the Alpine part of Italy. The Po River in Northern Italy is known for its richness in terms of agriculture, but it is also feared for its almost regular floods that damage large parts of the plains, including the large cities such as Milan or Venice. Palvis operated from the cities of Rovigo, Ferrara, Bologna and finally from the 1880s to 1920 in Cremona at Po River. He there worked with a comparatively large river, whereas he had contributed to torrents in earlier years. Palvis realized that one way of river improvement consisted in river bed fixation with material that was hardly attacked even during floods. Toward the end of the 19th century, he therefore developed the gabion element. The Palvis gabion was patented and started its success around the world. Today, gabions are widely used in river engineering, mainly for bank protection. A water course becomes artificially roughened by these elements containing smaller stones in a rectangular metal wire basket filled with rock. Gabions may also be applied in the traffic infrastructure, such as for supporting walls in mountainous regions.

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_{Anonymous (1911). Gabbioni a scatola "Palvis". Officine Maccaferri & Pisa Zolla Predosa, Italia. Lino Tipo Sordomunti: Bologna.}

_{Armanini, A. (2007). Egidio Palvis. Personal communication. P}

_{Bettinelli, A. (1917). Ancora "Per le nostre alluvioni". Controreplica al. Cav. Ing. Egidio Palvis, Capo dell' Ufficio di Cremona del Corpo Reale del Genio Civile. Sanclementi: Cremona. Ciampini, L. (1933). I gabbioni a scatola Palvis nelle loro svariate applicazioni. Marzocci: Bologna.}

_{Minesso, M. (1992). Tecnici e modernizzazione nel Veneto: La Scuola dell'Università di Padova e la professione dell'ingegnere 1806-1915. Lint: Trieste.}

_{Palvis, E. (1917). Il regime idraulico del fiume Po in rapporto alla sua demanialità. Replica à "Per le nostre alluvioni" da Alessandro Bettinelli. Bergonzi: Cremona.}

_{Zeni, E. (1911). Idraulica. Hoepli: Milano.}