VENTURI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA. – Priest, scientist, and statesman, born at Bibbiano on 11 Sept. 1746, died at Reggio Emilia on 10 Sept. 1822.
Professor of physics and geometry at Reggio and Modena, entrusted by the Este government with designing or overseeing public works, in 1796 he was sent to Paris on a diplomatic mission and there conducted important research and experiments in hydraulics and electricity. Returning to Modena, he devoted himself to science, advocating among other things the adoption of the metric decimal system and the unification of units of measure throughout the State and in public affairs; he prevented any extreme measures against reactionaries during the dramatic days of the fall of the republican government in the face of the Austro-Russian invasion of 1799. Nevertheless he was
arrested for “Jacobinism,” but soon regained his freedom. For more than a decade he served as minister of Italy in Switzerland, where he energetically promoted the Catholic faith; alongside the performance of his duties he pursued his beloved studies, in which he achieved European renown. Returning to private life in 1813, he settled in Reggio, where he remained undisturbed even after the ducal restoration; in this final phase of his life he continued to cultivate physics, publishing numerous highly esteemed works, especially in hydraulics and the history of science. His name is linked to an instrument—the “Venturi tube”—widely used in hydraulics.
VENTURI, ADOLFO – VENTURI, ADOLFO. – Born at Modena on 4 Sept. 1856, died at Santa Margherita Ligure on 10 June 1941.
VENTURI, ADOLFO. – Born at Modena