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Not Just Boys at Via Panisperna: Women at the Royal Physics Institute in Rome

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Abstract

This paper retraces the history of some of the women who attended the Royal Physics Institute of Via Panisperna in Rome, from its founding in 1881 until 1937. Much has been written about the so-called Via Panisperna boys; less known is the story of the girls who attended that same institute starting during the directorship of Pietro Blaserna. Nuclear physicist Edoardo Amaldi, in the typewritten notes in which he began to reconstruct the history of the Institute, was one of the first to document women scientists there. Starting with the first women who graduated in physics at the Institute, and also considering the political and institutional context, I reconstruct the stories of Nella Mortara, Laura Capon, and Ginestra Giovene. The latter two later became the wives, respectively, of Enrico Fermi and Amaldi.

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References

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  9. In 1861, when the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed, a single law existed for the entire school system. The Casati Law oversaw every order and level of education, as well as defining the competences of the various institutions involved. It basically regulated the entire education system until the Riforma Gentile in 1923.

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  11. On Bottero and Magistrelli’s careers: Paola Govoni, “Studiose e scrittrici di scienza tra l’età liberale e il fascismo. Il caso di Bottero e Magistrelli,” Genesis 6, no.1 (2007), 65–89.

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  13. Pietro Blaserna, “Prefazione,” in Bottero and Magistrelli (ref. 12), 1.

  14. Miriam Focaccia, Pietro Blaserna and the Birth of the Institute of Physics in Rome: A Gentleman Scientist at Via Panisperna (Switzerland: Springer Biographies, 2019), 5–6.

  15. Govoni, “Donne in un mondo senza donne” (ref. 8); Miriam Focaccia, “Architette, chimiche, fisiche, dottoresse,” in Dizionario biografico delle scienziate italiane (secoli XVIII–XX), ed. Miriam Focaccia (Bologna: Pendagron, 2012), 11–22.

  16. Mengarini designed the world’s first industrial electricity transmission plant. It operated on single-phase alternating current over significant powers and distances, and it transported energy from the Tivoli power station to Rome. On the figure and work of Guglielmo Mengarini, see: Miriam Focaccia, “Dal vapore al trasporto elettrico. I primi esperimenti in Italia agli albori del XX secolo,” Quaderni di Storia della Fisica, 22 (2019), 90–92.

  17. Margarethe Traube Mengarini, “Ricerche sui gas contenuti nella vescica natatoria dei pesci, Nota III, presentata dal Socio Blaserna,” Rendiconti Accademia dei Lincei 4, no. 4 (1888), 313–14.

  18. Focaccia, A Gentleman Scientist (ref. 14), 6.

  19. Matilde Marchesini, “Trasmissione di forza più notevoli ad elevatissimi potenziali,” L’elettricista 10 (1901), 237.

  20. Matilde Marchesini, “A proposito del radio,” L’elettricista 1 (1904), 39.

  21. The announcement was made on December 26 of that year.

  22. See: Govanni Battimelli and Maria Grazia Ianniello, Fermi e dintorni. Due secoli di fisica a Roma (1748–1960) (Milano: Mondadori Università, 2012), 95.

  23. On the history of electrification in Italy, see: Miriam Focaccia, “Le capitali della luce. Il Nord Italia,” Quaderni di Storia della Fisica, 19 (2017), 5–45.

  24. On the relationship between developments in the use of electricity and changes in the social sphere, please refer to: Alexander Laszlo and Ignazio Masulli, “Elettricità e vita sociale,” in Storia dell’industria elettrica in Italia. 1. Le origini. 1882–1914, ed. Giorgio Mori (Roma-Bari: Laterza), 645–49; Giuseppe Ortoleva, “L’elettrificazione come processo storico e forma simbolica,” in La città elettrica. Esperienze di elettrificazione urbana in Italia e in Europa fra Ottocento e Novecento, eds. Andrea Giuntini and Giovanni Paoloni (Bari: Laterza, 2003), 18–32.

  25. Please refer to: Giovanni Paoloni, “Ricerca e istituzioni nell’Italia liberale,” in Ricerca e istituzioni scientifiche in Italia, ed. Raffaella Simili (Roma-Bari: Laterza, 1998), 93–116.

  26. The birth and development of the electric light bulb technology represents one of the most universally explored topics in the history of inventions.

  27. Matilde Marchesini, “L’illuminazione elettrica della basilica Vaticana,” L’elettricista 12 (1903), 96.

  28. The Italian Physical Society (SIF), still active, was chaired, among others, by physicists Antonio Ròiti, Augusto Righi, Angelo Battelli, Vito Volterra, Antonio Garbasso, Orso Mario Corbino, and Quirino Majorana, as well as Giovanni Polvani from 1947 to 1961. Under the presidency of Polvani, with the end of the war, a decisive relaunch of the society took place, also thanks to the launch of new and prestigious initiatives including, in 1953, the birth of Varenna International School of Physics, later dedicated to Enrico Fermi. The aim of the Italian Physical Society is to “promote, encourage and protect the study and progress of physics in Italy.” On the history of SIF, please refer to: Focaccia, A Gentleman Scientist (ref. 14), 72–74.

  29. Information on these students can be found in: Scienza a due voci: http://scienzaa2voci.unibo.it; please refer also to: Battimelli and Ianniello, Fermi e dintorni (ref. 22), 86.

  30. Govoni, “Donne in un mondo senza donne” (ref. 8), 226.

  31. Adele La Rana and Paolo Rossi, “Scheda Bio-Bibliografica,” accessed September 6, 2022, https://osiris.df.unipi.it/~rossi/Marini%20Elena.pdf

  32. The first chair of complementary physics was created by Blaserna in Rome, in 1899, in order to fill a serious omission in Italian physics at the intersection between experimental physics and mathematical physics. It was a chair of theoretical physics designed to expound the overall concepts of scientific synthesis with a breadth that cannot be accommodated in a simple experimental physics course designed for students of medicine or engineering. With the creation of the chair in complementary physics in 1899, Blaserna had already embarked on a programme of fundamental renewal for the teaching of physics, filling that gap that still existed in Italy and that left the discipline in a situation of backwardness. Please refer to: Focaccia, A Gentleman Scientist (ref. 14), 45–46.

  33. Elena Marini, “Sull’isteresi magnetica,” Il Nuovo Cimento 4, no. 1 (1912), 155–71; “Variazione subita da una corrente sinusoidale nel suo passaggio attraverso ad un filo di ferro,” Il Nuovo Cimento 7, no. 1 (1914), 5–10.

  34. Focaccia, A Gentleman Scientist (ref. 14), 44.

  35. Adelaide Marchetti, “Sulla distribuzione del campo magnetico nell’interfebro di un elettromagnete,” Il Nuovo Cimento 5, no. 1 (1913), 119–40; “Sulla Esaltazione della Birifrangenza Magnetica del Ferro Bravais Recente per Azione di Acidi,” Il Nuovo Cimento 6, no. 1 (1913), 418–26.

  36. Elena Marini and Margherita. Blache, “Conducibilità calorifica dell’aria e micromanometri a riscaldamento elettrico,” Il Nuovo Cimento 11, no. 1 (1916), 95–117.

  37. Adele La Rana and Paolo Rossi, “Scheda Bio-Bibliografica,” accessed September 6, 2022, https://osiris.df.unipi.it/~rossi/Blache%20Margherita.

  38. Adele La Rana and Paolo Rossi, “Scheda Bio-Bibliografica,” accessed September 6, 2022, https://osiris.df.unipi.it/~rossi/Fabaro%20Luigina.pdf.

  39. Luigia Fabaro, “Sul calore specifico del platino a elevate temperature,” Il Nuovo Cimento 9, no. 1 (1915), 123–39; “Oscillazioni luminose nelle nuove lampade a incandescenza,” Rendiconti Accademia dei Lincei 28 (1919), 280–84.

  40. On Nella Mortara see: Sandra Linguerri, “Nella Mortara,” in Dizionario biografico (ref. 15), 133–38; Maria Grazia Ianniello, “Mortara Nella,” in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, 2012), 236–39.

  41. Archivio Storico Sapienza (ASS), Mortara Nella, Posizione AS 5739.

  42. Nella Mortara, “La caratteristica dinamica dei tubi per raggi X, Nota I,” Il Nuovo Cimento 9, no. 1 (1916), 133–43; “Nota II,” Il Nuovo Cimento 2 (1917), 265–70; also printed in Rendiconti Accademia dei Lincei 25 (1916), 446–53.

  43. Orso Mario Corbino, “I compiti nuovi della fisica sperimentale,” Atti della Società italiana per il progresso delle scienze (Rome: 1930), 157–68.

  44. Please refer to: Emilio Segrè, Enrico Fermi, fisico. Una biografia scientifica (Bologna: Zanichelli, 1970); Laura Fermi, Atoms in the Family. My Life with Enrico Fermi (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1954).

  45. Orso Mario Corbino and Giulio Cesare Trabacchi, “Un generatore invertibile per correnti continue senza collettore né contatti striscianti,” Rendiconti Accademia dei Lincei 24 (1915), 588–94; also printed in Il Nuovo Cimento 9, no. 1 (1915), 80–94; Orso Mario Corbino and Giulio Cesare Trabacchi, “Un indotto per correnti continue senza collettore né contatti striscianti fondati sulle azioni elettromagnetiche di seconda specie,” Rendiconti Accademia dei Lincei 24 (1915), 418–24.

  46. Elena Freda and Nella Mortara, “Sulla caratteristica dell’arco cantante nei regimi cui corrispondono diverse emissioni spettrali, Nota I,” Rendiconti Accademia dei Lincei 25 (1916), 438–45; Elena Freda and Nella Mortara, “Nota II,” Rendiconti Accademia dei Lincei 26 (1917), 116–22; also printed in Il Nuovo Cimento 13 (1917), 297–317.

  47. On Elena Freda, please refer to: Enrico Giannetto, “Freda Elena,” in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, 1988), 356–57; Sandra Linguerri, Un matematico un po’ speciale. Vito Volterra e le sue allieve (Bologna: Pendagron, 2010), esp. chapter 3: “Elena Freda: assai più di una fedelissima,” 91–148.

  48. Mario Ageno, “Ricordo di ‘zia Nella,’” Manuscript, August 1989, published in: Maestri e allievi nella fisica italiana del Novecento, ed. Luisa Bonolis (Pavia: Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, 2008), 36–39.

  49. Ageno, “Ricordo di ‘zia Nella’” (ref. 48).

  50. On Orso Mario Corbino, please refer to: Giovanni Battimelli and Giovanni Paoloni, “Il ministro scienziato,” Le Scienze, December 1, 2008, 112–18; Miriam Focaccia, Orso Mario Corbino. Un manager della ricerca all’Istituto fisico di Roma (in press). On the reception and development of the postulates and formalisms of quantum mechanics in Italy, please refer to: Adele La Rana and Paolo Rossi, “The Blossoming of Quantum Mechanics in Italy: The Roots, the Context and the First Spreading in Italian Universities (1900–1947),” European Physical Journal H 45, no. 4–5 (2020), 237–57.

  51. On the birth of the Radium Office, please refer to: Giovanni Battimelli, “Le origini del laboratorio di fisica,” Memorie di Scienze Fisiche e Naturali, Rendiconti della Accademia Nazionale delle Scienze detta dei XL 23 (1999), 149–60.

  52. Please refer to: Il Laboratorio di Fisica dell’Istituto Superiore di Sanità, eds. Martino Grandolfo, Frederica Napolitani, Serena Risica and Eugenio Tabet (Rome: Istituto Superiore di Sanità, 2017).

  53. Nella Mortara, “L’Ufficio del Radio,” Rivista di radiologia e fisica medica 4 (1932), 462–68.

  54. The first equipment for the preparation of radium emanation was installed in 1925. A second lot of equipment, entirely of Italian production, was installed in 1929.

  55. ASS, Mortara Nella, Posizione AS 5739.

  56. Note that Mortara had the same salary as her male colleagues who preceded her in this role. In 1927 the physicist Franco Rasetti, a friend and colleague of Fermi, also held the same role with the same salary. On the question of the lowest wages earned by women in academic employment, see: Rossiter, Women Scientists in America. (ref. 1), in particular chapter 7.

  57. AAE, fasc. 66, box 17. A handwritten note on the circular carries the comment: “Answered,” adding a card number, which shows that Mortara was registered with the Fascist Party.

  58. AAE, fasc. 66, box 17.

  59. Ianniello, “Mortara Nella,” (ref. 40), 238.

  60. Nella Mortara, letter to Enrico Persico, Rome, August 12, 1945, Archivio Enrico Fermi, Fondazione Galileo Galilei, Pisa.

  61. Edoardo Amaldi and Franco Rasetti, “Ricordo di Enrico Persico (9 agosto 1900–17 giugno 1969),” Giornale di Fisica 20, no. 4 (1979), 235.

  62. Nella Mortara, letter to Enrico Persico, Rome, August 12, 1945, Archivio Enrico Fermi, Fondazione Galileo Galilei, Università di Pisa. On Antonino Lo Surdo, please refer to: Battimelli and Ianniello, Fermi e dintorni (ref. 22), 160–62. On the relationship between Lo Surdo, Corbino and the group of ‘Via Panisperna boys’ see also: Fermi, Atoms in the Family (ref. 44), 69–75.

  63. Nella Mortara, letter to Enrico Persico, Rome, December 21, 1947, Archivio Amaldi (AA) Fondo Persico, box 1—Corrispondenza, Department of Physics, Sapienza, University of Rome.

  64. She had already begun to officially collaborate with the Higher Institute of Health (ISS) the previous year, under the direction of Daria Bocciarelli. She remained there until March 31, 1958 when she left the service due to an age limit. However, she collaborated for several more years with Bocciarelli and Mario Ageno in the Physics Laboratory of Health. For the Mortara years at the ISS, please refer to: Frederica Napolitani, “La presenza femminile nel Laboratorio di Fisica. Breve ritratto di alcune protagoniste,” in Il Laboratorio di Fisica dell’Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ref. 52), 433–45.

  65. Fermi, Atoms in the Family (ref. 44), 39–40. After the wedding, Laura decided not to continue her studies.

  66. Fermi, Atoms in the Family (ref. 44), 51–52.

  67. Fermi, Atoms in the Family (ref. 44), 52.

  68. Segrè, Enrico Fermi, fisico (ref. 44), 83–84.

  69. Orso Mario Corbino, “Prefazione,” in Ginestra Amaldi and Laura Fermi, Alchimia del nostro tempo (Milano: Hoepli, 1936), xi–xiv.

  70. Ginestra Amaldi, Questo mondo grande e terribile (Milano: Garzanti, 1951), 3–4.

  71. Rossiter, Women Scientists in America (ref. 1), xv.

  72. Patricia Fara, A Lab of One’s Own: Science and Suffrage in the First World War (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018).

  73. Gino Loria, “Donne matematiche, Memoria letta il 28 dicembre 1901,” Atti e Memorie della R. Accademia Virgiliana di Mantova, Biennio 1901–1902, Mantova, 1903, 75–98. The speech was also published in French: “Les femmes mathématicienne,” La Revue Scientifique 13, no. 20 (1903), 385–92.

  74. The comparison with an episode reported by Rossiter is significant. This was the case of the appointment as full professor at Duke University of Hertha Sponer, considered one of the most brilliant women physicists of the time, after Marie Curie and Lise Meitner. Robert Millikan, one of most distinguished physicists in the country, strongly opposed her appointment. In a letter sent in 1936 to the president of Duke University, Millikan argued that the future of physics in the United States depended on extending every opportunity to the “bright young man in the field” and added that the presence of women faculty in a physics department would lower its prestige. Who knows what Curie would have thought of her colleague Millikan, with whom she amiably chatted in Rome, in 1931, right in Via Panisperna, on the occasion of the first international congress of nuclear physics. Refer to: Rossiter, Women Scientists in America (ref. 1), 190–94.

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    Miriam Focaccia

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Miriam Focaccia researches the history of scientific institutions and research laboratories, biographies of some of the protagonists of post-unification science, and the relationship between women and science since the eighteenth century.

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Focaccia, M. Not Just Boys at Via Panisperna: Women at the Royal Physics Institute in Rome. Phys. Perspect. 24, 154–177 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-022-00291-x

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