The Meteorogical Observatory of the Royal University of Sassari

Checking the Personnel records of Sassari’s Royal University professors, you notice, for the academic year 1874-1875, a well-known name: Alessandro Volta. Needless to say, that’s not the famous inventor of battery of the Napoleonic age, but his grandson, born in Como in 1849. He had come to Sassari for teaching physics in the classical lyceum D.A. Azuni, but he was also charged with the same course at university. He took advantages in an unusual way of experimental physics’ traditional scopes, such as pneumatics and atmospheric-pressure studies, until then only used to carry out educational activities with medical students. Volta had good access to several national institutions, so he was able to get financial support from the MInistry of Agriculture to buy instruments such as psycrometer, rain gauge, thermographs, evaporimeter and anemographs. The measurements, made in the Physycs cabinet located in the University Palace, started officially on 1st December 1874. The recording was done three times a day, at 9:00 a.m., at 13:00 p.m. and at 9:00 p.m. Since 1865 the Ministry had set up the first national meteorological service: the Servizio meteorico-statistico, later (1876) part of the Central Office of Meteorology. The meteoric, decadic, agrarian service was active in Sardinia from Sassari and Cagliari, the meteoric international one only from Sassari.