Marconi Museum |
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visits: Sunday at 10 am
working days on reservation
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 info visits
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Born in 1853 at Lapedona, in today's province of Fermo, Calzecchi Onesti completed his studies at the Annibal Caro High School of Fermo – where he later taught for several years – and at the University of Pisa, receiving a degree in mathematical physics. He was a teacher at the Aquila High School (1879) and, as of 1880, at the Fermo High School. His evident vocation for teaching led him to operate as an educator of deaf-mutes (with excellent results) and to write the Dizionario Metodico Illustrato (Illustrated Methodic Dictionary). In 1898 he was awarded the gold medal at the International Electrical Exhibition in Turin for his experiments using a tube with iron fillings. He went on to teach in Palermo, Milan and Rome. When he finally returned to the Marche region, he was seriously debilitated and died at Monterubbiano in 1922. At the Fermo High School, Calzecchi was able to further his research and discovered some important characteristics regarding metallic powders. Between 1884 and 1886, he recorded his findings in a few articles that were published in “Il Nuovo Cimento”. When around 1890 Branly devised the radioconducteur, resuming and enhancing Calzecchi's experiences, bitter controversies arouse. But the question of priority was debated much more vehemently after Calzecchi's death, involving the offspring of both scientists and, above all, the fierce journalism of the time which defended every little or big contribution made by Italian science. It cannot be denied that Calzecchi's work on the conductivity of metallic powders was precious for many. But the querelle, as is often the case, did not deserve such an excessive expenditure of energy and words, because between Calzecchi and Branly there is a pronounced difference, especially if one considers the “power at a distance” that the Italian scientist had not noted. Nevertheless, Calzecchi Onesti was a skilled physicist and a “pioneer” of sorts. In fact, it was Marconi who benefitted from his experiences when approaching radiotelegraphy, and who paid homage to Calzecchi in a speech delivered at the Campidoglio before the Italian Royal Family in 1903.
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For many years Marconi's mother Annie Jameson, would take her children to Tuscany where they used to spend the autumn and winter months. Annie had a sister who lived in Livorno, and it was here she decided to introduce her youngest son to professor Rosa, who taught physics and mathematics at the local Liceo Niccolini. For almost a year, from the autumn of 1891, professor Rosa gave private classes in the theory and practice of electrical engineering to the young Guglielmo. Vincenzo Rosa was born in Turin in 1848. He graduated in Physics and Mathematics at the Royal University of Turin and later taught in various Italian high schools and at the Physical Institute of Florence. He published scientific essays and devised laboratory equipment, cultivating an interest in the hertzian wave. As Marconi acknowledged, his encounter with professor Rosa was very important. When they met, Guglielmo was seventeen years old and still at school, although he didn't attend regularly, so he was unable to fulfil his passion for the physical phenomena. Rosa gave him a thorough grounding in basic knowledge, teaching him the new theories on electricity, but above all he welcomed him into his home laboratory, where Guglielmo was able to make experiments under Rosa's supervision. The trust and esteem they had for each other did not diminish even when they took different paths. Marconi visited his professor many times and never lost an opportunity to mention his name on public occasions. Vincenzo Rosa was married to Aurelia Pozzo who gave him three children. He died in Candelo, near Biella, in 1908, not living quite long enough to see his pupil win the Nobel Prize for Physics the following year. In his speech at the Swedish Royal Academy, Marconi described the teaching of his beloved professor Rosa as the only real and direct contribution made to his education of self-taught genius.
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© 2013 - Fondazione Guglielmo Marconi - Villa Griffone - via Celestini 1 - 40037 Pontecchio Marconi (BO) - C.F 80063250379