Leopoldo Nobili

Leopoldo Nobili, born on 5 July 1784 in Trassilico (Toscana) and died on 22 August 1835

He worked with Macedonio Melloni on the thermomultiplier, a combination of thermopile and galvanometer, before being appointed professor of physics at the Reale Museo di Fisica e Storia Naturale (Royal Museum of Physics and Natural History) in Florence where he worked with Vincenzo Antinori on electromagnetic induction. 'Nobili's Rings', picture from book A.Watt – Electro-deposition : a practical treatise on the electrolysis of gold, silver, copper, nickel, and other metals, and alloys, with descriptions of voltaic batteries, magneto and dynamo-electric machines, thermopiles, and of the materials and processes used in every department of the art and several chapters on electrometallurgy, London 1887. He was also credited with the discovery of 'Nobili's Rings'. "When a dilute solution of copper acetate is placed on a bright silver plate and a strip of zinc is touched to the silver beneath the copper, a series of rings of copper are formed by electrolysis around the zinc."