Let’s talk about successes and… failures!
Among the stories told by the instruments of the Poleni Museum, there are naturally stories of successes, which have marked the history of physics and the territory. For example, we can mention the electric motors invented in the 1830s by Dal Negro, among the very first devices of this type ever invented and unique in the world, or the telephones made to order and used by Francesco Rossetti, professor of physics in Padua in the years 1860-1880. With the specimens preserved in the Museum, Rossetti made the first telephone communication in Veneto in 1878, one of the first in Italy.
We also remember the instruments of Bruno Rossi, one of the giants of 20th-century particle physics, who introduced the study of cosmic rays in Padua, starting in 1932. His cutting-edge equipment proved valuable for the recovery of Paduan physics after World War II. Consider that in Padua itself, in 1956, the first bubble chamber used at CERN in Geneva between 1958 and 1959 was designed and built.
Failures are also very interesting. One example for all: the model of a steam machine for tobacco processing, intended for the tobacco factory in Venice. Although the model received a medal at the industry awards of the Lombardo-Veneto Kingdom in 1822, the machine itself was never built in Venice, given the lack of interest of the Austrian government in technological innovations. The model was then gifted in 1826 by the Emperor of Austria to the Physics Cabinet of Padua, becoming a teaching tool.
Can we speak of failure regarding an instrument that loses its original function, despite being rich in potential? What do success and failure mean in the scientific and technological field, given the importance of the political, social, and economic context of the territory?