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Giacinto Berruti
was born in Asti on 29th January 1837. Berruti graduated in Hydraulic Engineering and Civil Architecture in 1859.
During university years, Berruti could have his qualifications as researcher evaluated, conquering, among other matters, the confidence by
Quintino Sella, of whom later he became a co-operator.
After a study staying in France at the Ecole des Mines, Berruti entered the Royal body of mines. In 1862 he was sent to the Universal Exhibition of London together with the engineer head of Grabau mines and the royal commissioner
Giuseppe Devincenzi. After a suggestion of Sella he stopped in London to observe the editing work of the English geological map.
After returning to Italy in 1863, Berruti could realise matters he learnt, by participating to the drawing up of the geological map of Biella province, as an essay of the Italian geological map, together with Quintino Sella and
Bartolomeo Gastaldi.
In 1865 Berruti was entrusted with the the implantation in Turin of a government office for printing stamps and valuable documents. By a few months, he acquired machinery and techniques in England, the workshop could produce the first patterns so contracting the job of valuable documents to foreign companies. The initiative started by Berrutti developed to the extent that in 1901 the workshop availed of an industrial capital for over two million liras and the number of workers passed from 15 to 437.
After approving in 1867 the grist-tax, it was necessary to design and manufacture the mechanical counters to be applied to grinders of mills to measure the quantity of cereals to be taxed. Berruti played a central role in the whole operation. He managed the manufacturing of counters at the Turinese company Thiabaud and Calzone, he took its maintenance at the Workshop of Valuable Documents, supplied the Balance Sheet Ministry with the mathematical formula to making technically righter the tax application, calculating variables that previously were not considered (wheat quality, grist quality, etc.). Berruti studied equipment measuring the power of the grist, replacing the improper brake by Prony. This dynametric water-circulating brake then become used normally.
In 1872 Sella, for the third and last time Minister of the Balance Sheet, appointed Berruti as inspector manager of Finances and gave him the management direction of the grist located in Florence.
His co-operation with the central government continued also in next years. After becoming a manager of the mine district of Turin, in 1873 Berruti became director of Cavour Channel management. Later on, Berruti participates, together with Sella, to audit agreements between State and railways companies. Particularly, between 1875 and 1876 he cared of the ransom problem for High Italy Railways, still formally owned by Austrial railway companies.
Berruti published the results of his scientific researches. In 1869 he translated an important collection of German works by J. R. U. Meyer on the heat mechanics, between 1870 and 1872 were written works devoted to the grist such as Perequazione delle quote fisse per la tassa sul macinato, Sulla determinazione delle quote di tassa per cento giri di macina in esecuzione della legge 7 luglio 1868 e la Descrizione e teoria di un termodinamometro (Equal distribution of fixed shares for the grist-tax, Determination of tax shares for 100 grist turns, as an enforcement of the law dated on 7th July 1868 and Description and theory of the thermodynometer).
As a consequence of the recent death of
Giulio Axerio, director of the Royal Industrial Museum of Turin, the government gave the task to lead the Turinese Institute to a man of proven experience. After leaving the Body of Mines, in 1881 he took the new office he kept up to 1896. The years of management by Berruti coincised with the great growth of the Royal Industrial Museum. The new manager contributed to reorganise the educational offer of the Museum. The course of Mechanical Engineering fully started and the same happened with special 2-year courses of Chemical Engineering and Mechanics for factory managers. The space devoted to the teaching staff of technical institutes and professional schools was remarkable as well. Berruti's attention to new technological expanding fields was very wide. Berruti, follwing
Galileo Ferraris' idea, who was the first one in Italy in 1886, started a superior course of Electrotechniques and allowed the Museum to gain a durable fame.
In addition to his didactical and organisational tasks Berruti added also the poltical engagement. Member of the Council of the Municipality in Turin from 1887 to 1902, Berruti gave his technical contribution to the discussion of the arrangement of the sewage system. Then he designed the reformation of the pension fund of Municipality's employees. This reformation was later applied by several public bodies.
President of the Society of Engineers in years 1874, 1879, 1891, Berruti had been a member the Royal Academy of Sciences of Turin snce 1871. He died in Turin on 11th February 1904.
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