The Pirelli Scientific and Technical Library: Books that Tell Stories of Innovation
Exploring the shelves of the Pirelli Scientific and Technical Library takes one back in time to texts that were written in the late nineteenth century, and in the early twentieth, and then to the all the years that followed, up to the early 2000s. The monographs and periodicals that have been collected here illustrate the company’s technological development, and they show how Pirelli engineers expanded their knowledge of rubber, tyres and electric cables by studying these tomes. Over time, it was these engineers who put their names to research papers, texts, conference proceedings and annotations, which over the years became the foundations on which later generations would build their expertise.
Many of these texts were written by Emanuele Jona, an engineer from the Politecnico University of Turin, who specialised at the Montefiore Institute in Liège. Jona remained with Pirelli for 33 years, helping the company become one of the most advanced in Europe in the field of electrotechnics, and particularly in the submarine cables sector. This was thanks in part to the cable-laying ship Città di Milano, on which Jona personally embarked to supervise its operations. Among the texts in the Library there are important treatises on the subject, and reports on his maritime missions, including a note on “Oceanic Telephony” of 1896, the opening speech at the congress on the “Development of electrotechnics in Italy over the past decade”, which was held in 1906. Then there is a book dated 1913 on “Submarine cables from Italy to Libya” and another on “Italy’s submarine routes” of 1919.
Looking further through the volumes, another historical figure of the company immediately catches the eye: the engineer Luigi Emanueli, the son of one of Jona’s assistants, who followed in his father’s footsteps, graduating in industrial electrotechnical engineering and joining Pirelli in 1907, where he worked for many years in developing the cable sector. It was Emanueli who came up with one of the most important inventions in the sector: the “Cavo Emanueli” was a cable insulated by paper impregnated with fluid oil, which eliminated the dissipation of energy at source. Among his most important writings, which are now preserved in our Scientific and Technical Library, we find various technical reports and proceedings of international conferences, such as a volume on “Experimental research on dielectric losses” of 1913 and one entitled “Occluded gas in very high-voltage cables: some experimental results obtained in the Pirelli laboratories in Italy” of 1926. A text of great interest is “Luigi Emanueli and the development of high voltage cables”, written by Paolo Gazzana Priaroggia, one of his closest assistants, who examines this important figure and the role he played in the field of electrical engineering, These and countless other volumes are still consulted today by engineers and researchers who want to broaden their knowledge of tyres, rubber, physics, chemistry and electric cables. A wealth of knowledge that is handed down from generation to generation, through the centuries.
Exploring the shelves of the Pirelli Scientific and Technical Library takes one back in time to texts that were written in the late nineteenth century, and in the early twentieth, and then to the all the years that followed, up to the early 2000s. The monographs and periodicals that have been collected here illustrate the company’s technological development, and they show how Pirelli engineers expanded their knowledge of rubber, tyres and electric cables by studying these tomes. Over time, it was these engineers who put their names to research papers, texts, conference proceedings and annotations, which over the years became the foundations on which later generations would build their expertise.
Many of these texts were written by Emanuele Jona, an engineer from the Politecnico University of Turin, who specialised at the Montefiore Institute in Liège. Jona remained with Pirelli for 33 years, helping the company become one of the most advanced in Europe in the field of electrotechnics, and particularly in the submarine cables sector. This was thanks in part to the cable-laying ship Città di Milano, on which Jona personally embarked to supervise its operations. Among the texts in the Library there are important treatises on the subject, and reports on his maritime missions, including a note on “Oceanic Telephony” of 1896, the opening speech at the congress on the “Development of electrotechnics in Italy over the past decade”, which was held in 1906. Then there is a book dated 1913 on “Submarine cables from Italy to Libya” and another on “Italy’s submarine routes” of 1919.
Looking further through the volumes, another historical figure of the company immediately catches the eye: the engineer Luigi Emanueli, the son of one of Jona’s assistants, who followed in his father’s footsteps, graduating in industrial electrotechnical engineering and joining Pirelli in 1907, where he worked for many years in developing the cable sector. It was Emanueli who came up with one of the most important inventions in the sector: the “Cavo Emanueli” was a cable insulated by paper impregnated with fluid oil, which eliminated the dissipation of energy at source. Among his most important writings, which are now preserved in our Scientific and Technical Library, we find various technical reports and proceedings of international conferences, such as a volume on “Experimental research on dielectric losses” of 1913 and one entitled “Occluded gas in very high-voltage cables: some experimental results obtained in the Pirelli laboratories in Italy” of 1926. A text of great interest is “Luigi Emanueli and the development of high voltage cables”, written by Paolo Gazzana Priaroggia, one of his closest assistants, who examines this important figure and the role he played in the field of electrical engineering, These and countless other volumes are still consulted today by engineers and researchers who want to broaden their knowledge of tyres, rubber, physics, chemistry and electric cables. A wealth of knowledge that is handed down from generation to generation, through the centuries.