RICHELMY

ITALY (see also List of Individuals)

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28.7.1813 Torino/I - 13.7.1884 Torino/I

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Prospero Richelmy graduated as an engineer from the Torino University in 1833 and there earned the doctoral degree five years later. From 1849 a hydraulics professor, he was in 1851 elected a Member of Torino Academy of Sciences and acted as vice-president from 1869. Also in 1869 he added to his institute an outdoor hydraulic laboratory including a water tower for sufficient hydraulic head. In parallel, Richelmy was the first rector of the Politecnico di Torino from 1860 to 1880. His primary aim was to attract outstanding colleagues that increased the wealth of the young Italian state. Richelmy was also closely connected to the Italian Society of Engineers and Architects, an association founded in 1864 in Torino. From 1880, Richelmy suffered from a lung disease causing his death.

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Richelmy published practically all his works with the Turin Academy. His main works relate to discharge determination of River Po using gauging methods of his time; development of hydraulic machinery based on French advances and its application to turbine manufacturing; a review of hydraulic resistance as introduced by Jean-Victor Poncelet (1788-1867); and an addition to Poncelet and Lesbros's work on weir flow with particular regard to the submerged flow. In 1855, Richelmy investigated fluid flow between two communicating tanks relating to liquid oscillation with resistance. His 1861 work was a continuation of the research relating to jet dispersion initiated by Giorgio Bidone (1781-1839), the famous initiator of hydraulic research in Torino.

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_{Curioni, G. (1884). Cenni biografici sulla vita e sulle opere del Commendatore Prospero Richelmy. Memorie della Reale Accademie di Scienze, Torino Serie 2 37: 481-490.}

_{Poggendorff, J.C. (1898). Richelmy, Prospero. Biographisch-Literarisches Handwörterbuch 3: 1119-1120. Barth: Leipzig, with bibliography.}

_{Richelmy, P. (1854). Notizia di alcuni lavori ed esperienze sugli stramazzi incompleti eseguite allo stabilimento idraulico della Regia Università di Torino. Memorie della Reale Accademie di Scienze, Torino Serie 2 14: 275-316.}

_{Richelmy, P. (1861). Sur un passage du mémoire de Bidone sur la percussion des veines d'eau. Memorie della Reale Accademia di Scienze, Torino Serie 2 19: 132-142.}

_{Richelmy, P. (1871). Ricerche teoriche e sperimentali intorno agli efflussi dei liquidi a traverso di brevi tubi conici divergenti. Memorie della Reale Accademia delle Scienze Torino Serie 2 25: 31-52. http://www2.polito.it/strutture/cemed/museovirtuale/storia/2-02/2-2-01/2-2-0160.htm P}