Marcello Pirani

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Probe of a Pirani vacuum gauge, open

Marcello Stefano Pirani (born July 1, 1880 in Berlin ; † January 11, 1968 there ) was the inventor of the vacuum meter named after him for measuring pressure based on the principle of heat conduction , the Pirani vacuum meter . Marcello Pirani also did pioneering work in the field of gas discharge .

Life

Pirani was the son of the Italian composer Eugenio di Pirani (1852–1939) and his German-Jewish wife Clara, née. Nice slim. In 1899, Marcello Pirani enrolled at the University of Berlin for mathematics and physics, where he received his doctorate in 1903 with measurements of the dielectric constant of solid bodies under Emil Warburg . He then accepted an assistant position at the Physics Institute of the Technical University of Aachen.

From 1904 to 1919 Marcello Pirani was employed in the incandescent lamp factory of Siemens & Halske AG in Berlin, where he took over the management of the laboratory. During this time he constructed a new vacuum measuring device, which is known internationally today under the name " Pirani vacuum meter ". It works in the pressure range from 10 −4  mbar to 1000 mbar and uses the pressure dependence of heat conduction for measurement. The change in thermal conductivity is measured using the change in resistance of an electrically heated wire. In the war years 1915 to 1918, Marcello Pirani worked as a war volunteer with scientific and technical tasks, including problems with wireless telegraphy. After the First World War, in addition to his work at Siemens & Halske AG, he accepted a position as adjunct professor at the Technical University of Berlin-Charlottenburg.

From 1919 to 1936 Marcello Pirani worked for the newly founded Osram company as head of the scientific and technical service for electrical lighting. He researched incandescent lamps and the manufacture of fluorescent tubes and sodium vapor lamps . In 1930 his book about electrical heat generation was published. In 1932 he and Alfred Rüttenauer developed oxide electrodes for low-pressure mercury lamps with a fluorescent coating .

Before the start of the Second World War, Pirani emigrated to England as an avowed Quaker in 1936 , where he worked in the research laboratory of General Electric Co. Ltd. until 1941. worked at Wembley. He worked in the fields of discharge tubes and highly refractory materials. Pirani was then a scientific advisor at the British Coal Utilization Research Association in London. From 1947 to 1952 Pirani was a Scientific Advisor to British-American Research Ltd. in London.

In 1953 Marcello Pirani returned to Germany, where he was brought in by the Osram Society in Berlin as a scientific advisor. Pirani dealt with the fields of gas discharge , glass and ceramics well into old age.

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personal data
SURNAME Pirani, Marcello
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pirani, Marcello Stefano
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German inventor
DATE OF BIRTH July 1, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH January 11, 1968
Place of death Berlin