Adolfo Bartoli

Who was Adolfo Bartoli?

Adolfo Bartoli was an Italian physicist, who is best known for introducing the concept of radiation pressure from thermodynamical considerations.

Born in Florence, Bartoli studied physics and mathematics at the University of Pisa until 1874. He was professor of physics at the Technical Institute of Arezzo from 1876, at the University of Sassari from 1878, at the Technical Institute of Firenze from 1879, at the University of Catania from 1886 to 1893, and at the University of Pavia from 1893.

In 1874 James Clerk Maxwell found out that the existence of tensions in the ether, in other words radiation pressure, follows from his electromagnetic theory. In 1876 Bartoli derived the existence of radiation pressure from thermodynamics. He argued that the radiant temperature of a body can be raised by reflecting its light from a moving mirror, and therefore it is possible to transport energy from a colder to a hotter body. To avoid this violation of the second law of thermodynamics, it is necessary that light impart a pressure to the mirror. Therefore, the radiation pressure was also called "Maxwell-Bartoli pressure".