01 Aug Milan: the city of inventors
Milan is a symbol of the most innovative cities in Italy, but have you ever wondered who were the true innovators that made Milan great? In this article we will take you to discover the most significant inventions that originated in our city!
In Milan was born the first power plant of continental Europe. In the late Nineteenth century, on the site of the ancient Santa Radegonda theater, the powerhouse was built, having the coal boilers on the first floor and the steam reciprocating machines and dynamos on the ground floor. It was also built a brick chimney (52 m high), which is clearly seen stand out next to the Duomo in the old photographs.
Nowadays we are all used to move through the subway that connects the entire city of Milan, but perhaps many don’t know that our subway is the most extended one in Italy. In 1952 the municipality decided for a subway system project consisting of four lines and on the 6th October 1955 was created the "Metropolitana Milanese" company to manage the infrastructure construction. In 1957 the first excavations began and in 1964 the first section of the line now commonly called "the red line" was officially inaugurated.
One of the personalities symbol of Milan was Giovanni Battista Pirelli who founded in 1872 the "Pirelli & C." in order to produce items in vulcanized rubber. He opened the office where now the "Pirelli Tower”stands proudly and then in 1897 he patented the first bicycle tire.
Only two years after he sold the first Pirelli tires for motor vehicles. From that day Pirelli made the history of tires and is still famous throughout the world.
The engineer Giulio Natta, Milanese by adoption, brought plastic into our homes thanks to the discovery of isotactic polypropylene which earned him to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1963.
From 1952 Natta began to become interested in the scientist Karl Ziegler's discoveries, the cooperation with whom led Natta to the creation of an international laboratory of studies, which involved many scholars and culminated with the discovery of isotactic polymers.
Another Milanese personality worthy of note was Enrico Forlanini: it's not a coincidence that Linate airport was named after him.
Enrico Forlanini was the first, in 1877, to invent a steam helicopter, also offering a public demonstration in Milan between July and August of the same year. The demonstration took place on a platform assembled inside the Public Gardens Salon. The helicopter rose to a height of 13 meters, for a flight of about twenty seconds that ended with a slow descent. It was not the first flight of a model helicopter, but it was the first experiment of a metal helicopter with a real engine.
Finally, we must mention some of the people that have made Italy great to the world's eyes.
The designer and architect Gio Ponti, who in 1928 founded the magazine Domus, Aldo Rossi and Renzo Piano, internationally renowned architects who won the Pritzker Prize, Achille Castiglioni and Marco Zanuso, international designers whose creations have become a symbol of Made in Italy.
