Macedonio Melloni
Macedonio Melloni (
April 11,
1798 â€"
August 11,
1854) was an
Italian physicist, notable for demonstrating that
radiant heat has similar physical properties to those of
light.
Born at
Parma, in
1824 he was appointed professor at the
University but was compelled to escape to
France after taking part in the revolution of
1831. In
1839 he went to
Naples and was soon appointed director of the
Vesuvius Observatory, a post that he held until
1848.
He died at
Portici, near Naples, of
cholera.
Melloni's reputation as a physicist rests principally on his discoveries in radiant heat, made with the aid of the
thermomultiplier, a combination of
thermopile and
galvanometer. In
1831, soon after the discovery of
thermoelectricity by
Thomas Johann Seebeck, he and
Leopoldo Nobili employed the instrument in experiments especially concerned with characteristics of (in modern language)
black body radiation transmitted by various materials.
He used an
optical bench fitted with thermopiles, shields and light and heat sources, such as
Locatelli's lamp and
Leslie's cube, in order to show that radiant heat could be
reflected,
refracted and
polarised in the same way as light.
His most important book,
La thermocrose au la coloration calorifique (Vol. I., Naples,
1850), was unfinished at his death.
He also studied the
magnetism of
rocks,
electrostatic induction and
photography.
*
Rumford Medal of the
Royal Society, (
1834);
*Correspondent of the
Académie des Sciences, (
1835);
*Foreign member of the Royal Society, (
1839).
