L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, JULY 27, 2017 www.italoamericano.org 8 FRANCESCA BEZZONE S cientific innovation or inventions may not be the first thing coming to mind in relation to the Bel Paese. No offense to the many Italian scien- tists, from Trotula to Galileo, all the way to Rita Levi Montalcini, Margherita Hack and Renato Dulbecco, who changed the game in their disciplines throughout the centuries, but when thinking about Italian geniality, it is to art – in all its forms – the mind usually runs to. For this reason, many may not be aware that Italian creativi- ty is behind some pretty popular inventions, some of which we use on an everyday basis: we can thank Italian minds for barome- ters and thermometers, for banks and pianos and even for those incredibly relaxing Jacuzzi bath- tubs the luckiest among us have in their bathrooms. Let's start with the Italian genius par excellence, Leonardo da Vinci: quirky and mysterious, Leonardo is the mind behind early prototypes of helicopters, cars (check the Codex Atlanticus f. 812r for it), parachutes and, according to some, even bicy- cles. That would be more than enough to demonstrate his limit- less geniality and creativity, yet, in a twist deign of the best steampunk saga, out comes another incredible invention from his collection of mirabilia: the robot. Yes, you read it right, Leonardo left us detailed designs to create robots. As for the already mentioned ante-litteram car, projects for a knight and lion automatons can be found in the Codex Atlanticus. The first was eventually built, following Leonardo's own indications, of course, in 2002 by NASA scien- tist Mark Rosheim; the latter, coeval sources tell us, was con- structed in Florence and then sent to Lyon to honor the arrival in the city of King Francis I. It was the year 1515 and, sources continue, the robot-lion could walk perfectly. It is also an Italian we can thank if, today, we are able to predict the weather on any given day. It was 1643 and the mind behind it all was that of Evangelista Torricelli, a student of Galileo Galilei himself. While working with mercury and air tight tubes, Torricelli understood that atmospheric changes would cause the mercury to rise and fall inside the tubes: it was this initial observation that led him to create the first barometer, which he eventually perfected a few years later. And think of Italy again the next time you change batteries to your remote control, as Alessandro Volta, born in 1745 on the beautiful Lake of Como so adored today by international VIPs, create it in 1800. The voltaic battery was the first instrument to produce a constant electric stream and was com- posed by copper and zinc poles immersed in diluted sulfuric acid. Knowing this, it comes as no surprise that the measuring unit for electricity itself, the volt, is name after good, old Alessandro. Think of what you do every day: is there anything more com- mon and natural than reading the newspaper and going to the bank? Probably not. Speaking about banks may not be the best idea to warm up the conversation at your next dinner party, yet they are among the best known Italian inven- tions. They were created in Tuscany between the late Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance. Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici founded the Medici family bank in 1397, but the most famous of them all, espe- cially because it is still active today, is the Monte dei Paschi di Siena, which opened for the first time in 1472 and it is the oldest operating bank in the world. Move further north, in yet another incredible part of Italy, the Venetian Lagoon, to find the first newspaper. It was the year 1556 when the local government began publishing updates about the events and the news of the area on a monthly basis. Maybe more like a current affairs maga- zine than a daily, yet the first example of anything of the sort. Every music lover or musi- cian will adamantly define it the most fundamental and amazing of all Italian invention: the piano. Now, before the piano, there were other instruments reminiscent of it, the clavichord and the harpsichord, the strings of which were plucked with hooks to produce sounds. Bartolomeo Cristofori, how- ever, was not satisfied and put his creativity and music knowl- edge at work to create a different type of instrument, with strings that were no longer plucked, but hit by little hammers covered in leather. This allowed producing higher quality, more refined sounds. We were in the early 1700s and, admittedly, it took the good part of the 18 th century to perfect this new instrument, called the "pianoforte" or, more simply, the piano. By the end of the 1700s, the piano had become the best friend of musicians and performers all around Europe. Last but not least, Jacuzzis! The creation of the ultimate relaxation contraction is, to be honest, a joint affair between Italy and the United States. Candido Jacuzzi, who had emi- grated from Italy to the other side of the Atlantic seeking fortune, had a son with a serious form of rheumatoid arthritis. It was in the attempt to help his child find some relief from pain that Jacuzzi created the first hydro- massage. It is strange to think of this quintessential symbol of VIP status and five stars resorts as a medical device, but that is, indeed, what it was created as. The Bel Paese home to cre- ativity and genius, not only in the fields of the arts, then: science, economics and everyday life have been at the root of plenty of made in Italy inventions, as exemplified in the few para- graphs above. Truly, there is always something more to learn about a country than what is commonly known. Evangelista Torricelli best known for his invention of the barometer In 1709 the Italian Bartolomeo Cristofori invented the first piano Inventions of Italy: finding Italian creativity where you may not expect it LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE The voltaic battery was the first instrument to produce a constant electric stream

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