1800

From the Osservatorio di Palermo (Palermo Observatory), astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi discovers the first dwarf planet, which he names Ceres. In 1817 he is appointed director of the Osservatorio di Capodimonte (Capodimonte Observatory) in Naples.

Chemist and jurist Amedeo Avogadro formulates the hypothesis that equal volumes of gas, at the same temperature and pressure, have an equal number of molecules. The principle comes to be known as Avogadro's Law.

At the Accademia delle Scienze in Modena, physicist Leopoldo Nobili presents the astatic galvanometer, for eliminating effects of the Earth's magnetic field.

Anatomical pathologist Angelo Dubini discovers the parasite Anchylostoma duodenale in the human intestine, showing its "hooked mouth."

The "Consesso dei professori e dei cultori delle scienze fisiche in Italia, comprese la medicina e l'agricoltura" (Assembly of professors and scholars of the physical sciences in Italy, including medicine and agriculture) is held in Pisa, the first meeting of Italian scientists.

Chemist Ascanio Sobrero obtains nitroglycerin by mixing glycerine with nitric and sulfuric acids.

Engineers Eugenio Barsanti and Felice Matteucci, inventors of the first two-cylinder internal combustion engine, deposit a document with a description of the invention at the Accademia dei Georgofili in Florence.

Giovanni Caselli patents the pantelegraph, the first form of telefax, a device capable of sending and receiving remotely not only written texts, but also drawings, making use of an electrochemical method, through the telegraph line.

Stanislao Cannizzaro, in the Sunto di un corso di filosofia chimica (Abstract of a course in chemical philosophy), relaunches Avogadro's theory and identifies the molecule, understood as an aggregate of atoms, as the structural unit of matter.

Physicist and mathematician Antonio Pacinotti creates the ring that will allow him, the following year, to invent the dynamo./p>

The Regio Museo Industriale is established in Turin as a pole of scientific research. In 1906 the Museum together with the Regia Scuola di Applicazione per Ingegneri, give life to the Politecnico di Torino.

Antonio Meucci files a temporary patent for a type of telephone device at the New York Patent Office but cannot find financial backing for a regular deposit. In 1876 Bell files his patent and obtains the concession.

Pietro Blaserna is called to hold the chair of Experimental Physics at Sapienza University in Rome and to direct the Regio Istituto Fisico (Royal Institute of Physics), which moves in 1881 to the new grounds at Via Panisperna.

The Reale Ufficio Geologico (the future Servizio Geologico Nazionale) is established, with the task of preparing a geological map of Italy, also desired by mining engineers Quintino Sella and Felice Giordano. The first edition of the map is published in 1881, for the 2nd International Geological Congress in Bologna.

Cesare Lombroso publishes L'uomo delinquente (The Delinquent Man), expounding his theories on the biological determinism of criminality and on the individuation of physiognomic characteristics that relate to deviant tendencies.

Astronomer Giovanni Schiapparelli delineates a map of Mars, with observations of a dense network of linear structures on the surface that he calls channels, giving rise to various hypotheses about life on the planet.

Engineer Galileo Ferraris builds the first electric motor with a rotating magnetic field, but does not patent his invention. In 1888 he publishes an article explaining in detail the constitution of its engine.

Giuseppina Cattani is named a member of the Società Medica Chirurgica di Bologna (the Medical Surgical Society of Bologna), the first woman admitted. In 1889, together with Guido Tizzoni, Cattani succeeds in obtaining a pure culture of tetanus bacillus, from the wound of a patient at the surgical clinic.

The Laboratorio Bacteriologico (Bacteriological Laboratory) and the Laboratorio Chimico Igienico (Hygienic-Chemical Laboratory), established the year before by the Direzione di Sanità Pubblica (Public Health Directorate), begin operation.

The Montecatini mining industry is established with the participation of French capital, for exploitation of Tuscan copper and pyrite mines. Under the guidance of Guido Donegani in 1910, it enters the artificial textile sector and begins production of nitrogen, ammonia, and pharmaceutical products.

Guglielmo Marconi, after presenting the first patent application for "Improvements in telegraphy and related equipment" at the London Patent Office, performs a test, with a transmitter on the roof of the Post Office, and a receiver, with telegraphic writing machine, at Saving's Bank, a distance of 4 km away. The following year he obtains the patent.

The Società Italiana di Fisica (Italian Physics Society) is born. Among the founders are Angelo Battelli, Riccardo Felici, and Vito Volterra. The Società is established around the magazine Il Nuovo Cimento, in publication since 1855.

Zoologist and entomologist Giovanni Battista Grassi identifies the transmitter of the malaria parasite, in the mosquito of the genus Anopheles.

The Reale Ufficio Centrale di Meteorologia (Royal Central Office of Meteorology) adopts the Mercalli Scale, the empirical scale of seismic intensity named for volcanologist Giuseppe Mercalli, author of an early seismic map of Italy. Grade 11 is added after the 1908 earthquake in Messina.