Giovanni Poleni

Giovanni Poleni (; 23 August 1683 – 15 November 1761) was a Marquess, physicist, mathematician and antiquarian. he destroyed it after hearing that Anton Braun had received 10,000 Guldens for dedicating a pinwheel machine of his own design to the emperor Charles VI of Vienna. Poleni described his machine in his Miscellanea in 1709, but it was also described by Jacob Leupold in his Theatrum Machinarum Generale ("The General Theory of Machines") which was published in 1727. In 1729, he also built a tractional device that enabled logarithmic functions to be drawn.

Poleni's observations on the impact of falling weights (similar to Willem 's Gravesande's) led to a controversy with Samuel Clarke and other Newtonians that became a part of the so-called "vis viva dispute" in the history of classical mechanics.

Poleni's graphic calculation for the St. Peter's cupola (right) His knowledge of architecture caused Benedict XIV to call him to Rome in 1748 to examine the cupola of St. Peter's, which was rapidly disintegrating. As part of the structural investigation of the dome he used a correctly loaded hanging chain to determine its funicular shape. He promptly indicated the repairs necessary. He also wrote a number of antiquarian dissertations. In 1710 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, in 1739 the French Academy of Sciences made him a member and later the societies of Berlin and St. Petersburg did the same. The city of Padua elected him as magistrate, and after his death erected his statue by Canova. Venice also honoured him by striking a medal.

He married Orsola Roberti of Bassano della Grappa. Giordano Riccati and Giovanni Battista Suardi were among his pupils.

Principal works Illustration of critique of Miscellanea... published in Acta Eruditorum, 1711 alt=Illustration of critique of Miscellanea... published in Acta Eruditorum, 1711

Miscellanea (dissertations on physics), Venice, 1709;

Exercitationes Vitruvianæ Venice, 1739;

Il tempio di Diana di Efeso (The Temple of Diana at Ephesus); Venice, 1742.