Officially established and organized starting from 1985, the collection originates from the recovery of materials scattered in the deposits of the then “G. Ciamician” Institute, specially restored and arranged and finally exhibited in the ground floor corridor in period cabinets, also restored. Connected in a logical path, evoking the atmosphere of early 20th-century chemical laboratories, the three main sections refer to scientific equipment, laboratory glassware, and samples of historically significant chemical products. The library hosts an important archive, which also preserves numerous ancient and rare books dating back to the 17th century, displayed on rotation, sometimes on specific themes.The start of the route, in the department’s lobby, is marked by the reconstruction of a study area furnished traditionally belonging to that of Giacomo Ciamician. The laboratory corner on the second floor, including a beautiful wooden hood, concludes the museum path, thus offering a tangible testimony to the evolution of Bolognese Chemistry. Among the scientific instruments, one of the first polarographs (an instrument for recording current-potential curves with a mercury drop electrode), dating back to the 1930s and identical to the original Heyrowsky prototype (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1959), is noteworthy, attesting to the electrochemistry school that thrived for several years in Bologna. Equally important are the various spectroscopes, polarimeters, Pulfrich’s photometer (an ancestor of the modern spectrophotometer), equipment for elemental analysis, and numerous balances. Among the scientific instruments for educational use stands out the collection of vacuum tubes (Crookes tubes), which emphasizes the scientific-cultural value these devices have had in the history of science. The tubes in the collection date around the 1920s-’30s and illustrate, in a hypothetical educational itinerary, many properties of electrical discharge in rarefied gases.
Information on the Collection of the “G. Ciamician” Department of Chemistry
Via Selmi, 2,
40121 Bologna (Bologna)
0512099545
str00320.direttore@unibo.it
https://www.ciam.unibo.it
Source: MIBACT
