Unveiling the Environmental Heritage of University Museums
Research on Energy Sources
Many university researchers have dedicated their studies to energy sources. At the end of the eighteenth century, coinciding with the first industrial revolution, the focus was on applications of fossil fuels, as shown, for example, by the research carried out by Jan Pieter Minckelers (1748-1824), a pioneer in the study of coal gas applications. In other ways, since the end of the nineteenth century, when the fear of fossil fuel depletion took centre stage in public debates, university research shifted the focus towards alternative energy sources. In Bologna, this shift is attested by the research of Giacomo Ciamician (1857-1922), who at the beginning of the twentieth century studied photochemical processes with the aim of finding applications to solar energy.
