HISTORY OF THE MUSEUM
It was during these years of the 19th century that the endowment of the Physics Laboratory was expanded and consolidated. At present the Museum possesses some two hundred and fifty apparatuses and instruments dating back to the 19th century.In particular, thanks to the presence of Gian Pietro Radicati (1853-1871) in the Chair of Experimental Physics, the number ofinstruments increased greatly following an extraordinary grant of three thousand lire in 1864.
The later presence in Cagliari of Antonio Pacinotti (1873-1881), who in Pisa had previously performed most of the scientific work that led him to the invention of his "dynamo", the first machine that generated direct current, which was to shake the world. Of his work, the Physics Museum of Cagliari possesses one of the three Dynamoelectric Machines that he built in Cagliari, the most prestigious piece of the collection. Of the other two machines, the first is now in Pisa and the other in the Science Museum of London. A functioning copy of the Pacinotti machine has recently been built by Carlo de Rubeis and Prof. Guido Pegna for the purpose of making it available to visitors to the Museum and of performing research on its characteristics, which were never published by Pacinotti ...continues
