History of Technology
Research focus
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The history of technology is studied today with great interest for the many aspects. There are many aspects of the history of technology that can be interesting today. One of such aspects is the survey of the historical constructive solutions. This study can have many objectives One of them is to constitute a knowledge basis utilizable in the modern design. Ancient constructive solutions of machines and devices could be proposed today, e.g. with new materials and technologies, as source of “new” ideas. In particular, was realized an archive of constructive solutions of car suspensions from the end of XIX Century until 2002 .Such archive is often utilized by students with the aim to search innovative solutions based on the historical heritage. Strictly connected with the historical evolution of constructive solutions, is the study of the drawing history: it is significant to observe that many historical constructive solutions are represented by drawings. The ancient drawings , therefore, can be considered as “keys” to read the history of technology. The efforts related to the archeometallurgy research is aimed at increasing the information about the ancient productive techniques applied in the metallurgy field. The applied methodology is structured in order to acquire the information about the adopted technology and the applied parameters starting from observation of the metal alloys characteristics and of the non-metallic materials trapped in the metal objects or the one found in the ancient productive site. The performed measurements are analysed through the application of thermodynamic model and physical model in order to identify the temperature and the atmosphere characteristics of the ancient reducing process or the route followed by the ancient metallurgical artisans to implement the thermo-mechanical processes. The obtained results are compared with the historical witnesses in order to improve the 74 knowledge about the applied ancient metallurgical procedure. This research activity has a significant educational impact also on the students following the related course, which are often trained in the application of traditional and advanced techniques of metallurgical characterization and modelling facing the amusing and interesting examination of the ancient metal products. The world of electricity and magnetism has magical origins. Born in 1800 with the battery of Volta, in 1873 Maxwell’s renowned Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism was able to express a mathematic model as a basis for all successive applications. The history of this evolution is rich with teachings for scholars and students since contributions have come from all angles: think of the religious sense of nature of Faraday and the concrete pragmatism of Edison so far from philosophical speculation. It is the job of historical research of the sector to inculcate open mindedness to the infinite capacity of humans to contribution to technical and scientific innovation. Transport history researches foster the analysis of the history of transport and mobility in Italy and its relationship with economy, society and engineering knowledge. In spite of the radical change of transport systems in the last two centuries and their great influence in the daily life, transport history remained in the background of the debate and of the historiographical researches in Italy. While other sectors, as politics or industry, were studied minutely, the events of transport were disregarded and only a few local and regional surveys were produced about mobility, even if transport history dates back to the second decade of the XXth century. In Italy, perhaps more than in other European countries, most contributions to transport history came from the transport vehicle enthusiasts, and not from the academic historians. Therefore transport history still presents many unexplored subjects in the economic and social fields and in the policy of sector. Also this research activity has a significant educational impact and in the related course not only the geographical development of transport in Italy is covered, but mainly its social, political, economic and technological history.
Dipartimento di afferenza
Docenti afferenti
Full Professors
Renato Manigrasso
Walter Nicodemi
Edoardo Rovida
Associate Professors
Andrea Curami
Carlo Mapelli