161
Secchi’s words suggest that the climate change issue was already focused and studied in his time. The modernity of his vision and approach to this topic appears surprising: the observation of nature and the discernment of signals coming from the
environment are the only way to understand climate change! In his monograph, with
simple and understandable language, he summarized personal considerations,
opened new perspectives, and suggested new approaches, providing new insights
and formulating hypotheses that in retrospect appear far ahead of their time.
9.4 The Meteorograph
Between 1857 and 1867, Angelo Secchi devised his meteorograph, an innovative
apparatus for recording over time variations of air temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, precipitation, wind direction and speed, air electricity, and terrestrial magnetism, representing them graphically on a single page (Fig. 9.1). It allowed
a direct and immediate comparison among these different measurements, recorded
continuously, thus making it possible to correlate the evolution of the monitored
phenomena (Secchi 1866a). This instrument, a true technological jewel of that era,
is considered the “prototype of modern automatic meteorological stations” (Beltrano
1996: 14).
Secchi presented his device at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1867 (Carraro
1868), where the international jury of the exhibition awarded Father Secchi the
highest honor: the Grand Prix gold medal (Secchi 1867; Chinnici 2019: 125–133),
a sum of 6000 francs, and high honorary titles by the emperors Napoleon III of
France and Pedro II of Brazil (Altamore and Maffeo 2012). The meteorograph
exhibited in Paris was then set up at the Collegio Romano Observatory. Removed
from its inventory in 1880, the apparatus has been completely restored
(see Brenni, Chap. 10 in this volume) and is now kept at the Astronomical Museum
of INAF-Rome Astronomical Observatory at Monte Porzio Catone (near Rome).
In 2015, thanks to the detailed description that Secchi gives about the temperature sensor (Kreil apparatus) of the meteorograph used at the Collegio Romano, we
have identified on the external wall of the eastern transept of Saint Ignatius’ church
the anchor used for fixing the bottom of the copper wire, the cables that supported
the sail designed to protect this sensor from solar radiation and, in the upper cornice,
the holes through which the wire and cables passed (Fig. 9.2).
relative epoche in cui essi hanno vissuto sulle nostre rive, è cosa assai difficile. Ma se è certo che
la renna abitava nelle vicinanze dei depositi delle terremare trovati nell’Emilia all’età della pietra
e del bronzo, come sembrano mostrare gli avanzi colà trovati, il clima d’Italia anche dopo la comparsa dell’uomo ha certamente mutato. Ma tale mutazione sembra essersi fatta a quanto pare in
meglio, cioè volgendo a una più alta e mite temperatura.
9 Angelo Secchi and Meteorology in Italy
Secchi’s words suggest that the climate change issue was already focused and studied in his time. The modernity of his vision and approach to this topic appears surprising: the observation of nature and the discernment of signals coming from the
environment are the only way to understand climate change! In his monograph, with
simple and understandable language, he summarized personal considerations,
opened new perspectives, and suggested new approaches, providing new insights
and formulating hypotheses that in retrospect appear far ahead of their time.
9.4 The Meteorograph
Between 1857 and 1867, Angelo Secchi devised his meteorograph, an innovative
apparatus for recording over time variations of air temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, precipitation, wind direction and speed, air electricity, and terrestrial magnetism, representing them graphically on a single page (Fig. 9.1). It allowed
a direct and immediate comparison among these different measurements, recorded
continuously, thus making it possible to correlate the evolution of the monitored
phenomena (Secchi 1866a). This instrument, a true technological jewel of that era,
is considered the “prototype of modern automatic meteorological stations” (Beltrano
1996: 14).
Secchi presented his device at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1867 (Carraro
1868), where the international jury of the exhibition awarded Father Secchi the
highest honor: the Grand Prix gold medal (Secchi 1867; Chinnici 2019: 125–133),
a sum of 6000 francs, and high honorary titles by the emperors Napoleon III of
France and Pedro II of Brazil (Altamore and Maffeo 2012). The meteorograph
exhibited in Paris was then set up at the Collegio Romano Observatory. Removed
from its inventory in 1880, the apparatus has been completely restored
(see Brenni, Chap. 10 in this volume) and is now kept at the Astronomical Museum
of INAF-Rome Astronomical Observatory at Monte Porzio Catone (near Rome).
In 2015, thanks to the detailed description that Secchi gives about the temperature sensor (Kreil apparatus) of the meteorograph used at the Collegio Romano, we
have identified on the external wall of the eastern transept of Saint Ignatius’ church
the anchor used for fixing the bottom of the copper wire, the cables that supported
the sail designed to protect this sensor from solar radiation and, in the upper cornice,
the holes through which the wire and cables passed (Fig. 9.2).
relative epoche in cui essi hanno vissuto sulle nostre rive, è cosa assai difficile. Ma se è certo che
la renna abitava nelle vicinanze dei depositi delle terremare trovati nell’Emilia all’età della pietra
e del bronzo, come sembrano mostrare gli avanzi colà trovati, il clima d’Italia anche dopo la comparsa dell’uomo ha certamente mutato. Ma tale mutazione sembra essersi fatta a quanto pare in
meglio, cioè volgendo a una più alta e mite temperatura.
9 Angelo Secchi and Meteorology in Italy