View source for Macedonio Melloni

{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}}
{{Short description|Italian physicist (1798–1854)}}
{{Infobox scientist
|name              = Macedonio Melloni
|image             = File:Melloni.jpg
|birth_date        = {{birth date|1798|04|11|df=y}}
|birth_place       = [[Parma]]
|death_date        = {{death date and age|1854|08|11|1798|04|11|df=y}}
|death_place       = [[Portici]]
|residence         =
|citizenship       =
|nationality       = Italian
|ethnicity         =
|field             = [[Physics]]
|work_institutions =
|alma_mater        =
|doctoral_advisor  =
|doctoral_students =
|known_for         = [[Radiant heat]]
|influences        =
|influenced        =
|prizes            = [[List of recipients of the Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts|Pour le Mérite]] {{small|(1842)}}<br>[[List of fellows of the Royal Society M, N, O|ForMemRS]] {{small|(1839)}}<br>[[Rumford Medal]] {{small|(1834)}}
|religion          =
}}
'''Macedonio Melloni''' (11 April 1798 – 11 August 1854) was an Italian [[physicist]], notable for demonstrating that [[radiant heat]] has similar physical properties to those of light.
==Life==
Born at [[Parma]], in 1824 he was appointed professor at the local [[University of Parma|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. In 1845, he was elected a foreign member of the [[Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]].
He died at [[Portici]], near Naples, of [[cholera]], aged 56.
==Work==
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]].<ref>{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Melloni, Macedonio}}</ref> 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 [[Reflection (physics)|reflected]], [[refraction|refracted]] and [[Polarization (waves)|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 [[Rock (geology)|rock]]s, [[electrostatic induction]] and [[photography]].
==Honours==
*[[Rumford Medal]] of the [[Royal Society]] (1834);
*Correspondent of the [[Académie des Sciences]] (1835);
*Foreign member of the Royal Society, (1839).
==See also==
*[[Thermographic camera]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{FRS 1839}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Melloni, Macedonio}}
[[Category:1798 births]]
[[Category:1854 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Parma]]
[[Category:Deaths from cholera in Italy]]
[[Category:19th-century Italian physicists]]
[[Category:Foreign members of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Members of the French Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)]]
[[Category:Infectious disease deaths in Campania]]