Tiberius Cavallo was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 physicist and natural philosopher.

Life

He was born at Naples

Naples

Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

, where his father was a physician.

In 1771 he came to England with the intention of pursuing a mercantile career, but he soon turned his attention to scientific work. He made several ingenious improvements in scientific instruments. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1779, and gave annual Bakerian Lecture

Bakerian Lecture

The Bakerian Lecture is a prize lecture of the Royal Society, a lecture on physical sciences.In 1775 Henry Baker left £100 for a spoken lecture by a Fellow on such part of natural history or experimental philosophy as the Society shall determine....

s from 1780 to 1792.

Cavallo was often cited in the literature of his time as inventor of Cavallo's multiplier

Cavallo's multiplier

Cavallo's multiplier was an early electrostatic influence machine, invented in 1795 by the Anglo-Italian natural philosopher Tiberius Cavallo. Its purpose was to multiply, or amplify, a small electric charge to a level where it was detectable by the insensitive electroscopes of the day...

, a device used for the amplification of small electric charges, making them observable and measurable in an electroscope. He also worked on refrigeration

Refrigeration

Refrigeration is a process in which work is done to move heat from one location to another. This work is traditionally done by mechanical work, but can also be done by magnetism, laser or other means...

, and his work influenced pioneer balloonist Jean-Pierre Blanchard

Jean-Pierre Blanchard

Jean-Pierre Blanchard , aka Jean Pierre François Blanchard, was a French inventor, most remembered as a pioneer in aviation and ballooning....

. He published on musical temperament

Musical temperament

In musical tuning, a temperament is a system of tuning which slightly compromises the pure intervals of just intonation in order to meet other requirements of the system. Most instruments in modern Western music are tuned in the equal temperament system...

.

He died in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 on 21 December 1809.

Works

He published numerous works on different branches of physics

Physics

Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...

, including:

• A Complete Treatise on Electricity (1777)
• Treatise on the Nature and Properties of Air and other permanently Elastic Fluids (1781)
• History and Practice of Aerostation (1785)
• Treatise on Magnetism (1787)
• Elements of Natural and Experimental Philosophy (1803)
• Theory and Practice of Medical Electricity (1780)
• Medical Properties of Factitious Air (1798).

External links

• An Account of Some New Electrical Experiments by Tiberius Cavallo Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society Vol. 67 December 1777 pages 48–55