Casa natale A. Pacinotti (L. Corevi, Comune di Pisa)
Birthplace of Antonio Pacinotti, via Santa Maria
Casa natale A. Pacinotti (L. Corevi, Comune di Pisa)Antonio Pacinotti was born in the year 1841 in Pisa and from an early age he distinguished himself in the academic environment for his skills in applied mathematics. He was Professor of Applied Physics at the University of Pisa and Senator of the Kingdom of Italy, as well as a member of the Lincei. The invention of the Pacinotti ring (1860), a toroidal iron core surrounded by a spiral-wound copper wire that rotates around an axis between two magnets generating electric current, is to be considered the prototype of a dynamic generator of electric current. In addition, if the current was directed into a copper wire, the whole machine, part of the famous Pacinotti machine, began to rotate, just like in an electric motor.
Curious fact: Unfortunately the invention of the dynamo is attributed to Zénobe Gramme, head of the Fremont workshops, to whom Pacinotti had shown his invention with the intention of selling the patent. The great Belgian scientist used Pacinotti's prototype, which ever saw a practical application, to patent the magneto-electric machine, or machine de Gramme.
