History of Chemical Engineering - ACS Publications - American

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12 T h e History of Chemical

Engineering

in Italy

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GIANNI ASTARITA Istituto di Principi di Ingegneria Chimica, Universitàdi Napoli, 80125 Naples, Italy Three historical epochs are considered: from antiquity until the birth of Italy as a nation in 1860; from 1860 until 1950, when Italy became an industrial society in the modern sense; and from 1950 up to the present time. A concise survey of chemical technology and of engineering education is given for the first period, while parallel sections are dedicated to industrial and academic development for the next two. The historical account reveals the very strong interference of industrial and academic developments, with closely parallel times of growth and stagnation. Political and cultural influences are discussed.

hile great works of engineering were realized by civilizations prior to the Romans, theirs was thefirstone in the history of mankind whose very existence was based on engineering. The centralized gov­ ernment of the Roman Empire was possible because of the extraordinarily perfect system of roads, many of which are still today main thoroughfares of European traffic; the network of aqueducts made survival of large towns,firstof all Rome itself, possible; the conquest of the Empire was made possible by the naval and military engineering developed by the Romans. Yet they were not chemical engineers, and did not contribute anything significant to chemical technology. (Pliny's Natural History makes this quite clear. Chemical technology in Roman times is dis­ cussed thoroughly in Réf. 1). Whatever chemistry was known in Roman times, in the Middle Ages it went into the blind alley of alchemy, which was universally accepted as a scientific theory if occasionally opposed on moral grounds ("Me per l'alchimia che nel mondo usai/danno' Minos a cui fallar non lece" (2)). Yet Dante seems to have had a better understanding of elementary physical 0-8412-0512-4/80/33-190-205($05.50/l © 1980 American Chemical Society In History of Chemical Engineering; Furter, W.; Advances in Chemistry; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1980.

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206

HISTORY O F C H E M I C A L ENGINEERING

chemistry than justified by only reading Aristoteles: " B e n sai come nell' aere si raccoglie/queir umido vapor che in acqua riede/tosto che sale dove i l freddo i l coglie" (3)). Technology in the Middle Ages was basi­ cally the same as i n Roman times, i f not regressed (4). As in most fields of human endeavor, the origin of the contemporary culture must be traced to the Italian Renaissance. In 1505, Bartolomeo della Valle, Giovanni Pietro Bassi, Lazzaro de' Pallazzi, and Maffeo de' Glussiani established the "Statuti et Regole per Tlngegneri et Agrimensori del Ducato d i Milano", the first known by­ laws of a professional engineering society. Between 1537 and 1551, the mathematician Niccolô Tartaglia wrote treatises on ballistics, which may be regarded as the first scientific works on military engineering. (Archimedes' great feats of military engineering, vividly described by Plutarch i n the Life of Marcellus, are not discussed in any of his great scientific works. Tartaglia is, of course, best known for his "triangle," the simple algorithm for calculating the coefficients of the nth power of a + b). Leonardo's contributions to engineering are too well known to be discussed. (The relevance of ff. 3v and 48v of M s . A , and of the backcover of M s . F , for scale-up theory have been discussed in Ref. 5 ff. 34v and 44v of M s . F suggest the use of tracer particles for determining the kinematics of a flow field. I did not conduct a thorough research of Leonardo's works, and was unable to trace any other element which might be related to chemical engineering.) What is less generally known, however, is that the Italian Renaissance produced the first known treatise on chemical engineering with the posthumous publication in 1540 of the Pirotechnia of Biringuccio (see Figures 1 and 2). Georg Bauer of Joachimsthal published his book in Latin and even changed his name to the L a t i n form of Agricola; and the De Re Metallica is popularly, but erroneously referred to as the oldest book on chemical engineering, although i n fact it was published 16 years after the Pirotechnia. Inci­ dentally, the very fact of writing i n Latin makes Agricola much more of a M i d d l e Ages man than his predecessor Biringuccio, who wrote in "Volgare," the language of the "Volgo," or common folk. (The first edition of Vannuccio (or Vanoccio) Biringuccio's Pirotechnia was pub­ lished i n Venice i n 1540 (see Figure 1). Three more Venetian editions are dated 1550, 1559, and 1678. I have consulted my own copy of the 1678 Bologna edition published by Gioseffo Longo (see Figure 2). There are four French editions (1556, 1572, 1627, 1859) and a Latin edition published i n Koln i n 1658. O f the modern editions, a partial Italian one was published in Bari in 1914; a German one in Brunswick in 1925; and an English translation by C . S. Smith and M . Gnudi was published i n N e w York i n 1943. As for the De Re Metallica by Georg Bauer (Agricola), it is curious that a German translation had to wait, as far as I was able to ascertain, until 1929 when it was published in Berlin. A n

In History of Chemical Engineering; Furter, W.; Advances in Chemistry; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1980.

12.

ASTARITA

Chemical Engineering in Italy

207

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TECHNIA. LISKl.X.OOVt AMttAMIM ttfi irana eonfolodfefm foitc 6C di, a * i S 5 metùt* é Mfakrc.ma anchor* cjuaf) Ι · β ι Secret tetornoâ la praiiîca éi ajuf l k cefc dt quel clic fi appatticr* a ft rif de la fufione ouci giiio de me ι»ΙΙ· Vorne d'ognî aliri cofa Amite a •quefta. CompoAipcrSI.S.Vacoc# eio Birîngucoo Seonde* Cou Priuttcgt* Apoflolîeo & delà CcÎartaMacaacedel UMlrttj^Seoa toVeoeto*

Figure 1. Front page of the first edition of the Pirotechnia English translation by H . C . Hoover and L . H . Hoover was published i n N e w York i n 1940. Agricola studied i n Italy at the Universities of Padova and Bologna.) Reading the Pirotechnia is a fascinating experience for a chemical engineer. M i n i n g , melting, and refining metals, separation processes, alloys, foundry technology, distillation, and production of ceramics are the subjects of the first nine chapters. The tenth one deals with explosives, and gives the name to the whole book. Biringuccio chooses to conclude as follows: " I don't want my writing to end i n a tragical tone; so that I have decided to also talk to you (after certain fires made of impetuous and horrible matters, which give great and hurting fear to men) of others which are made for gaiety and enjoyment" (6). A n d he proceeds by first describing the technology of firecrackers, and finally talking of that fire which burns completely and leaves no ashes, the fire of love. The style is colloquial, but the substance is serious; in regard to

In History of Chemical Engineering; Furter, W.; Advances in Chemistry; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1980.

208

HISTORY O F C H E M I C A L ENGINEERING

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