The development of Art’s Museums in Italy shows a positive trend also as a consequence of particular acts concerning the safeguard of Cultural Heritage.Scientific Museums are also undergoing an interesting development which has lead to establish the Crystallographic Instruments Museum, together with some useful reflections on the “Knowledge producers” and the “Knowledge acquirers”.
The Museum aims at telling part of “scientific venture” of the Crystallography. A scientific museum, as a cultural project for the public understanding of Science and Technology by means of knowledge of objects, tools, instruments, and devices. A direct and effective way to bring the science to people, but also an important opportunity to collect and to preserve the instruments which have often stimulated crystallographers and engineers creative ideas and permitted the development of advanced and innovative methodologies in the experimental research.
The various reperts acquired by the scientific museum of the Institute are numerous and interesting, such as old four-circle automatic single-crystal diffractometers models: “Siemens AED”, “Picker”, “Hilger – Watts”; Weissenberg and Buerger goniometers; cameras of Debye – Scherrer, Guinier – de Wolff, Gandolfi, Arndt – Wonnacott, and Straumanis; microscopes and optical goniometers; old x-ray tubes; microdensitometers; old vacuum tubes; electronic and chemical instruments, etc.
The instruments, apparatus, tools, and other objects are shown in the scientific instruments section of the Museum.
Technical – scientific documents and a historical archive represent a particular section of the Museum.
An interesting “Photography Gallery” showing old and new instruments (some built up in our Institute) completes the Scientific Museum.
Studies and a useful research work on various instruments and devices acquired represent some future activities of the Museum.
Dr.Ing. Fausto D’Aprile – Manager of IC Scientific Museum
Tel : +39 06 90672232
Museum (PDF) (Available only in Italian)