XXIII
:ft us a strong sign of his
a.
)f Milan
ts, also on behalf of the
l and Photogrammetry),
mnity of people working
y field for the initiative
:essful conclusion.
itext of joint efforts that
in order to replace the
RS to the level that our
ike to remember that the
:ists who the regretted
late Giuseppe Inghilleri,
lost in Italy an ISPRS
in the Autumn of 1940.
titute of Physics of the
:nding the courses of the
le courses of the studies
1 assistants at TU Milan,
desy, Topography and
of Applied Geophysics,
the teacher and director
ifties, some companies
d manager of artificial
le SADE company had
; a technical advice, the
i time of their dams,
:onditions and especially
al basins. The assistants
lietti and his colleagues
; deformations object of
sides of triangulations
:ntal conditions very
spear particularly easy,
ssions on which strategy
isures, I learned how far
measures, could be due
and that this keep into
tal disturbing causes.
ience was the execution
Gravimetric Network,
Seodesy by the Italian
following international
ed out between August
of the relative gravity in
correspondence with bench marks of the Militar Geographic
Institute (which heights were already determined), were
executed. The network had a density of about one station
every 100 km 2 , with a precision of some one hundredth of
milligal, according to the characteristics of the gravimeters
available in those years. Measures were carried out mainly by
Cunietti and Inghilleri, with the cooperation of the colleagues
Mazzon and Marazio especially with respect to computations.
The absolute values were referred to a pendular measure,
previously carried out at the Institute of Geodesy of the
University of Bologna. The measured stations were very
important later on, since they have been the essential bench
mark basis for the execution of dense gravimetric surveys in
all the Italian peninsula. Both works followed scientific
purposes given by the Italian Geodetic Commission, and
were useful for mineral researches, in particular for
hydrocarbon.
In this period, Cunietti consulted every work that could give
him information about what already written on “measure”
and “quantity” concepts. He started from Euclid, going on to
the philosopher Emanuel Kant, who was also interested in
this subject, and to the contemporary philosopher and
mathematician Bertrand Russel.
All this led to an important result: the decision taken by the
TU Milan of transforming the course of Topography, for
industrial engineering students, into a course of “Metrology:
theory and practice”, given by Cunietti himself. It was, and I
think still is, an initiative practically absolute in didactic and
academic field.
Luigi Alfano
To testify Mariano Cunietti metrologist, my thought went
immediately to the beginning of sixties, when I began an
active cooperation with him in the metrological field. In 1960
the Faculty of Engineering has been reformed, recognizing
the importance of the metrological knowledge for the
engineering studies.
At the TU Milan was activated the course of “Metrology:
theory and practice”, entrusted to him until 1996, year of his
retirement. Afterwards in 1963 was activated the course of
“Mechanical and Termical Measurements”, entrusted to the
writer. This situation obviously leads to a strict cooperation
between Mariano Cunietti and me, in order to coordinate the
two courses, giving the most complete outlook on the
measure sciences.
The cooperation has been manifested particularly in a series
of meetings, during which we discussed besides of the
fundamental principles, philosophical too, at the basis of
measurement operations. In this way, I could know the “man”
in his completeness. He was an extremely well-balanced and
very warm and humane person.
A tireless worker, he never denied someone help, advice or
opinion, both his interlocutor was a student and a colleague
or a co-worker. He considered, correctly in my opinion,
science and technique not separable from classical sciences
that form their foundations.
The cooperation continued later-on too, when it seemed
opportune, rather necessary, to establish and start up the
group of the "Mechanical Measures”, gathering this group all
the professors of those disciplines.
Cunietti’s thought was that not only the human work is a
fundamental part in measurement operations, but also all the
techniques and all the technologies are not imaginable
without man, as part of them.
This vision led him to develop a strong interest for
epistemology and classical sciences, in particular philosophy,
and convinced him about the necessity and utility of meetings
during which metrologists and philosophers interested in this
field, could discuss. In such a way, were bom the “Thinkshop
of Measurements”, held in Como at Villa Olmo, that reached
by now the XVII edition.
Cunietti always arranged in order to have the first part of
these days dedicated to epistemology, seen as a constructive
criticism to metrological concepts. Philosophers of different
tendencies were invited to give a talk to us, technicians, in
order to (start up - begin) discussions that could lead, all of
us, to deep reflections on measurement foundations.
Andrea Capello
For the first time, I met Mariano Cunietti about 52 years ago.
The war was finished a short time before; Italy was still in the
phase of a difficult rebuilding, and scientific and academic
communities were hardly trying to move with the times and
to make up for lost time. Mariano and I were the same age
and both young “voluntary” assistants. He was already at the
Institute of Geodesy, Topography and Photogrammetry of
TU Milan, I was just arrived at the new little Institute of
Applied Geophysics.
Both had in common the Guide, Prof. Luigi Soiaini, whose
first action, towards me, was to relying me to Cunietti for a
quick course of gravity differential measures. I was far from
be blessed with the qualities of patience, accuracy, etc. that
were, on the contrary, in the nature of Mariano. At the
beginning, his rigour was in conflict with my carelessness
and this make him appear as a priest of measure whose the
only scope in his life was the determination of the
approximation of investigated quantities.
However a day of observations in the country and some
cheerful discussions during breaks were sufficient to reverse
my first impression. I immediately discovered a spirit open to
every kind of culture, eager to investigate the most different
creation of human mind, from music to philosophy and
history, and his deep faith was not an impediment, but a
stimulus to better understand and judge.
After the familiarity of those first juvenile years, life
circumstances divided our ways, even if they remain parallel
(in the same year permanent assistants, in the same year
professors, in the same year retired). Nevertheless we had
