FERRARIS, Galileo, Italian physicist and electrician: b. Livorno, Piedmont, 31 Oct. 1847; d. Turin, 7 Feb. 1897. He was graduated at the University of Turin in 1867 and in 1869 in civil engineering at the Royal School of Engi neering. On being appointed in 1879 professor of physics in the Industrial Museum and in the Military College at Turin, he devoted himself to the study of technical physics and was in a short time recognized as one of the foremost electricians in Europe. In 1886 he founded the electro-technical school for engineers in Turin. In 1897 he was made a senator. A monument was erected in Turin to his memory in 1903. In 1885 his investigations into the properties of various electrical transformers resulted in the discovery of the rotatory magnetic field, produced by two alternating currents with a quarter difference of phase. This discovery made possible the two-phase motor. In 1893 he
published a theory of the single-phase alternat ing motor, and to him the present develop ment of alternating currents must largely be credited. His works on such subjects are standard authorities, and among them must be mentioned 'Le Propriety Cardinali degli Instru menti Diottrici, Teoria di Gauss' (Turin 1877, Leipzig 1879) ; (Sulla Illuminazione Elettrica' (Turin 1879) ; 'Sulle Diffcrenic di Fase delle Correnti; sul Ritardo dell' Induzione e sulla Dissipazione di Energia nei Trasformatori, etc.' (Turin 1888) ; 'Lezioni di Elettrotecnica) (Turin 1898, translated into German as (Wis senschaftliche Grundlagen der Elektrotechnik,' Leipzig 1901). His complete works were pub lished as 'Opere di Galileo Ferraris' (3 vols., Milan 1902-04). Consult Memoria di G. Ferraris> (in Rivista Tecnica, Vol. III, p. 257, Turin 1903).