TORRICELLI

ITALY (see also List of Individuals)

\

13.9.1855 Scandiano/I - 30.1.1930 Scandiano/I

\

Giacomo Torricelli was educated in hydraulics by Ildebrando Nazzani (1846-1931) and stayed after his graduation in 1880 for seven years as an assistant at the University of Rome. Torricelli in 1888 became a Lecturer in agricultural hydraulics at the Reale Scuola Superiore di Agricoltura, Portici, close to Naples, and from 1897 to 1910 was a professor of general hydraulics at the Reale Scuola d'Applicazione, Bologna. He then joined the Scuola d'Ingegneria of Padova as a professor of fluvial hydraulics until passing away from a terrible illness.

\

Torricelli's work in hydraulics includes a number of books and reports. His prime addition to the engineering literature in Italy was the 1913 Trattato, first published in 1893. The second edition includes three volumes on aspects of river engineering, irrigation and drainage, and hydraulic structures considered at this time. He therefore was one of the relatively few Italians contributing with such a work to the engineering knowledge of his era. Whereas weirs were a fashionable topic in the last decades of the 19th century, research moved to river engineering as a more practical issue with enormous applications in Northern Italy. The Po River is known for large devastations and works had to be regularly made to protect population from the waters and to profit from the natural richness of the Po plains. Torricelli also took interest in hydraulic structures such as gates and he presented successful dam schemes for an immediate application in his County. Torricelli also served as an expert for large irrigation projects in the Emiliana Region in Central Italy and he was a Member of the Commission reviewing the hydraulic projects relating to the Aswan Dam in Egypt.

\

_{Marzolo, F. (1930). Giacomo Torricelli. Annuario R. Scuola d'Ingegneria di Padova: 78-81. P}

_{Marzolo, F. (1954). L'idraulica e l'apporto dell'Università di Padova nelle discipline idrauliche. Studi e Riceche 165. Istituto di Idraulica dell' Università: Padova. Torricelli, G. (1885). Dei grandi bacini per irrigazione. Roma.}

_{Torricelli, G. (1888). Irrigazioni e laghi artificiali della Spagna. Barbera: Firenze.}

_{Torricelli, G. (1889). Misura di portata eseguita sul fiume Aniena il 24 Agosto 1866. Annali della Società degli Ingegnieri e degli Architetti Italiani 4(6): 535-543.}

_{Torricelli, G. (1913). Trattato di idraulica teorico-pratica. Hoepli: Milano.}

_{Zoppi, G., Torricelli, G. (1885). Dei grandi bacini per irrigazione e del serbatoio grisanti sull'Enza nell'Emilia. Genio Civile: Roma.}

_{Zoppi, G., Torricelli, G. (1886). Laghi artificiali dell'Algeria, della Francia e del Belgio. Botta: Roma.}