4.1 Scuole d’applicazione per gl’ingegneri
4.1.1 The First Schools of Application for Engineers
In Table4.1a list is reported, of the main Italian Schools of Application of Engineers, and the like. For sake of space, we will limit to presenting only those of Turin, Milan, Rome, and Naples with some detail.
4.1.1.1 The School of Application in Turin and the Royal Technical Institute in Milan
Turin. The first School of Application for Engineers was opened in Turin, capital city of the Kingdom of Sardinia [63,93]. The Royal Technical Institute, providing theoretical bases similar to those of the universities, was founded in 1852; the School of Application for Engineers was born in 1860, replacing the Institute. The principal promoters of its foundation were Prospero Richelmy (an engineer), Carlo Ignazio Giulio (an engineer), Ascanio Sobrero (a physician and a chemist), and Quintino Sella.5Richelmy was the first president, and was followed, from 1881 to his death (1887) by Giovanni Curioni; since 1861 the school had a prestigious seat at the Valentino Castle.
Out of curiosity, in the following Table4.2we list the ordinary expenses for the faculty in the year 1879.
In 1862 the Industrial Museum was founded in Turin, and its first director was Giuseppe De Vincenzi: its scope was the promotion of “industrial education and progress in industry and commerce”. The Museum came somehow in competition with the School: actually, the pupils attending civil engineering and architecture courses mainly followed classes at the School, while the pupils attending an indus- trial engineering course, whose graduation degree was established formally in 1879, followed classes mainly at the Museum.
5Quintino Sella (1827–1884) was a politician, engineer, and a mineralogist; he graduated in Turin in engineering, perfecting in various European countries. He was professor of mineralogy, member of the parliament from 1860, appointed minister of finance in 1862.
Table 4.2 Expenses of the School of Application in Turin, 1879 [84]
1 President L. 2.000 Per year
4 Directors of laboratories L. 3.200 “
6 Full professors L. 36.000 “
6 Extraordinary professors L. 15.000 “
10 Assistants L. 15.000 “
Assistants in charge, globally L. 6.000 “
1 Vice-director of the chemical laboratory L. 3.000 “
1 Secretary L. 4.000 “
1 Assistant secretary L. 1.800 “
1 Scrivener L. 1.400 “
2 Custodians L. 1600 “
Janitors and other, globally L. 4.600 “
Total L. 93.600 “
In 1906 the two institutions melded, originating the Polytechnic; the preparatory two-years course passed from the faculty of mathematics of the university to the Polytechnic, and the different professional figures of the architects and of the civil, industrial, chemical, and mechanical engineers were introduced.6The first woman in Italy to get a degree in engineering was Emma Strada in 1908 at the Polytechnic of Turin [8,80].7
Milan. The opening of a school for educating high-level technicians in Milan had been fostered long before the unification of Italy; a favorable climate was also created by the intellectual Carlo Cattaneo and his journalIl politecnico.8A Society for encouraging arts and crafts was born in 1838, by initiative of industrialists and businessmen; in 1848, the Regio istituto lombardo promoted a design of reformation
6Law June 23, 1906. TheRelazione sull’andamento della Scuola di Applicazione degli ingegneri di Torino nell’anno scolatico 1872–1873, sent to the Ministry by the director of the School, Richelmy, and now kept at the State archive of Rome, is interesting. On the School of Application we may also quote [44,85].
7pp. 1037–1046; pp. 1047–1056.
8Starting from 1839, this journal was the main vehicle of Cattaneo’s thought on the privileged role played by sciences for the progress of society.Il politecnicospread practical and applicative knowl- edge, and confirmed the social role of sciences. The will to develop and spread scientific culture in view of applications made it necessary to recall the disciplines taught at the Polytechnic: instead of the basics ‘Mechanics’ and ‘Hydraulics’ one talked about ‘Railways’ and ‘Communication routes’, arriving to ‘Industrial chemistry’ and ‘Industrial physics’. Much importance was given to commu- nications, most of all dealing with railways and river navigation on the Po. Geology was interesting essentially from the point of view of an investigation on energy, fossil fuels, and techniques for their extraction.Il politecnicohad great homogeneity from the cultural point of view, and it was almost impossible to ascertain Cattaneo’s contributions from these of his co-workers, who were all active in the Lombard technical-scientific world. The intellectual figure emerging from the articles in the journal is that of the engineer, who manages this new technical-scientifical know-how and contributes in creating a fruitful transformation of the Italian society; see [63], pp. 370–371.
of the education system, taking into account the education of engineers as well, and the spokesman was Cattaneo. In 1850 Brioschi, thanks to his political acquaintances, founded the Royal Higher Technical Institute, with three-years courses: in order to attend it, one should have passed a two years preparatory course at the faculty of mathematics of the university of Pavia (later on, of the Kingdom of Italy).
In 1865, the section for architects was established, in collaboration with the Accad- emia di belle arti in Brera; in 1873, the section for mechanical engineers was estab- lished. In 1875 the Royal Institute opened a preparatory school and got autonomy from the university.
After Giovanni Gentile’s reformation of the education system (1923), the Royal Higher Technical Institute took the name of Royal School of Engineering, then of Royal Higher Institute of Engineering (1935), and, in 1937, the present name of Polytechnic of Milan.
4.1.1.2 The School of Application in Naples
During French occupation, in March 1811, Joachim Murat founded in Naples the School of Application for Engineers of bridges and routes, on the model of the French École polythecnique. The school followed Murat’s institution of the Corporation of bridges and routes engineers [45,61].
The school was abolished during the Bourbon restoration of 1815, but was founded again in 1819 with the name of School of Application of bridges and routes. Its new statute reduced from three to two the years of the course of study. In the beginning, the school had its seat in the building ‘de’ Minister’ (nowadays Town Hall), then moving to the Gravina Palace. In 1834, with the reorganization of the professional skills of the technicians educated at the School of the Kingdom of Naples, it was established that the studies at the School of Application of bridges and routes were given the right to obtain the degree in civil architecture, thus subtracting it from the university.
While the Schools of Application in Turin and Milan were founded, and the uni- versities got a uniform regulation, in 1863 the School, which had in the meantime changed its name into School of Application for Civil Engineers, passed under the control of the Ministry of Education, with the name of Royal School of Application for Engineers, and detached, after almost fifty years, from the Corps of state engi- neers. The regulation of the school was the same as that in Turin, the admittance was limited to those with a degree in Mathematics, and the course of study lasted two years. The seat of the School was placed in the former cloister of Donnaromita, near the university.
At the end of the century the statutes of the Royal Schools of Application for Engineers in Italy were unified, and in Naples as well the course of study lasted three years, after a two-year period of preparatory studies on physics and mathematics, leading to the title of civil engineer, or of architect.
4.1.1.3 The School of Application in Rome
On October 23rd, 1817, theSchool of Engineeringwas born in Rome on the initiative of pope Pius VII, who had been exiled by Napoleon. This new papal school was estab- lished after the need of providing engineering knowledge through local education. In the beginning, the school was not part of the universitySapienza, founded on April 20, 1303 by pope Bonifacius VIII [94].
Descriptive geometry, architecture, constructions, hydraulics and practical hydrom- etry and topography were taught at the school, and attending a physics workshop was compulsory. The course of study lasted three years, and the school could be entered after having attended the classes in physics and mathematics at the university. The studies ended with a general exam after which the title of civil engineer was released, by which it was possible to enter the Corps of papal engineers, but also, first in Italy, to follow private practice.
After the unification of Rome to the rest of Italy, a decree of 1872 made Casati’s law hold, and on October 9th, 1873, the decree instituting the School of Application for Engineers in Rome was issued, remembered until now on a plaque in the lobby of the nowadays called faculty of engineering:
At the beginning of December, 1873, by the king Vittorio Emanuele II, and the minister of education Antonio Scialoja, what were the buildings of the Lateran Canons were opened to light in the teaching dedicated to the mathematical and practical disciplines.9(A.4.4) The School found a place in the former cloister of the Lateran Canons, next to the church of St. Peter in Chains, where it is also nowadays. Completely independent of the university, attending the preparatory classes in physics and mathematics was necessary to enter it.
For almost fifty years the School, even though with the aim of educating civil engineers, activated researches and experiments in order to enlarge the knowledge offered to its pupils, until a new regulation foresaw two separated sections, civil and industrial. The teachings of geodesy, applied geometry, technical physics, chemistry applied to building materials, applied geology were added; in 1886 electrotechnics was introduced, and after 1892 estimate, agricultural economics, applied hygiene, and others.
Two-year courses of architectonic drawing for the graduated pupils of the Accad- emia di belle arti of Rome and Florence were kept, and those pupils could so get the title of architects. The initiative was abandoned, then taken over again in 1919, with the institution of a Higher School of Architecture.
The School of Application became Faculty of Engineering in 1935; in the same year, the year in which the University campus was inaugurated, the faculty of architecture was also opened.
9Our translation.
4.1.1.4 Curricula Studiorum
Casati’s law originated from the necessity to give dignity and a right place to the technical and scientific culture, but, unfortunately, determined a strong differentiation between ‘scientific’ and ‘human’ knowledge. In the middle and high school, this differentiation turned into a true prevalence of human sciences. As a matter of fact, to enter university and, thus, make part of the future Italian ruling class, it was necessary to attend Middle and High School of a purely humanistic mold (ginnasio and liceo), where Latin and ancient Greek, believed to have a fundamental part in the educational process, were more important than mathematics and physics.
At the university, the differentiation was even stronger, but here ‘scientific dis- ciplines’ had their own dignity. In the newborn faculty of mathematical, physical and natural sciences, very few classes of humanities were active, and were seen as secondary. This fact was also encouraged by the teachers of the scientific faculties themselves, who, following the positivistic thought of the time, believed that humanities, together with philosophy, were a bunch of ‘useless sophistries’.
Professional courses of study—among them, engineering—considered their dis- ciplines as important as humanities, encouraged by Casati’s law, which gave great importance to basics, leaving topost laureamapprenticeship the acquisition of the specific knowledge relative to the various free professions.
In the beginning, each school had great freedom of choice in the teachings, but then the regulations for the Schools of Application for Engineers, approved by the Royal decree of October 8th, 1876 established the disciplines common to everybody.
Pupils in engineering and architecture should attend a two-year preparatory period in the faculties of mathematics, plus some additional exams, among which we find drawing. Then the three-year period at the School of Application followed, where they should attend the following classes:
1. First year
The first year was common to both courses, and teachings were: Rational mechanics;
Theoretical geodesy with exercises; Graphical statics and drawing; Applications of descriptive geometry; Docimastic chemistry10 with manipulations. Some classes would be given by teachers of the faculty of sciences of the university.
2. Second and third year
From the second year, the courses for architects and engineers differentiated. Pupils in engineering should attend mandatorily classes in: Practical geometry; Mechanics applied to machines; Mechanics applied to buildings; Rural economics and esti- mate; Law matters; Technical physics; Mineralogy and geology applied to building materials; Practical hydraulics; Hydraulic machines; Agricultural machines; Thermal machines; Technical architecture; Civil and rural buildings; Foundations; Bridges in masonry, wood, and iron; Ordinary routes, railways, galleries; Hydraulic construc- tions and sea works; Agricultural hydraulics.
10This is a branch of applied chemistry, studying the nature and the composition of the substances and materials adopted in industry.
Table 4.3 Program of the teaching of graphical statics, 1878–1879 [83, p.33]
Principle of signs in geometry; Graphical sum; Products, power, root extraction; Change of plane figures
Graphical composition of forces in a plane; Moments of forces and couples; Equilibrium of non-free plane systems
Composition of given forces in space; Cremona’s theory of reciprocal figures in graphical statics
Application of the theory of reciprocal figures to trusses Centroids; Moments of parallel forces; Applications
Moments of 2nd order; Central ellipse and core of a plane figure; Inverse problem of the moments of inertia of a plane figure; Hints on central ellipsoid and core of some solids Hints to the services that graphical statics may do the craftsmanship of the ship constructor Antonio Fais
Table 4.4 Program of the teaching of mechanics applied to constructions, 1878–1879 [83, p.53–54]
Elastic bodies; Forces and elastic deformations
Deformations that may take place in a solid under the influence of external forces, admitting the principles of conservation of plane sections; Corresponding stress at various points Results of experiments on various materials used in constructions; Experiments by Wửhler on the influence of repeated stresses on the strength of iron and steel—Methods by Winkler, Oerber, and so on
Resistance to extension or pressure; Influences of temperature on the stress in prisms; Work of elastic forces—Applications
Resistance to shearing; Calculation of joints
Theory of beams undergoing bending; Supported and clamped beams; Various cases; Beams of uniform resistance
Beams with straight axis resting on more than two supports; Determination of the reactions and of the moments at the supports
Inner forces and their distribution; Curves of the shearing forces and of the maximum tensions and pressures
Prisms subjected to forces parallel to the axis, central core; Case in which forces act along the axis
Beams subjected to forces acting slantwise with respect to the axis Resistance to torsion
Resistance to bending and torsion Theory of equilibrium of deck rafters
Theory of trusses; Load conditions determining maximum or minimum stresses in bars.
Applications
Theory of metallic arches Theory of domes
Theory of equilibrium of terrains
Stability of masonry; Conditions and equations of equilibrium, or of stability; Empirical formulas
Silvio Canevazzi
Other classes, those of the course in architecture of the Academies of fine arts, were added to these: Architectural styles, Manufacturing and clay modeling of archi- tectural ornaments, Inner decorations, Drawing of perspective, Watercolor and aes- thetics applied to architecture, and Measures from true. Each School of Application could, however, gather teachings and distribute them in the second and third year, according to the School councils.
In the following Tables 4.3and4.4we show the programs of the teachings in structural subjects of the School of Application in Bologna for the school year 1878–1879, which, in any case, reflected that of other schools. Such programs would remain practically unaltered at least until 1900.