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Giulio Axerio
was born in Rima San Giuseppe (Vercelli) in 1830. He studied in Turin, where he graduated in Maths in 1852.
When he was still very young, Axerio published a work on "Teoria degli immaginari" (Theory of imaginaries), which was very appreciated in scientific environments.
At the end of the University, taught for a very short term Maths and Physics at the Rosellini Institute, a high school which was established by Camillo Benso Count of Cavour.
To complete his education as engineer in 1856 the Piedmontese government sent him to France, at the Ecole des Mines, at the valuable institute where personages such as
Quintino Sella had studied.
After the period of education abroad, Axerio was appointed as an engineer at the minerary department of Novara. In addition, he worked as a manager of copper mines and workshops in Saint-Marcel, Chomp-ole-Praz e Donnaz in Aosta Valley.
In 1859 Axerio was sent by the government to Milan with the task to chair the enforcement of the law just released on the exploitement of mine resources. In Lombardy he had stopped for 20 years approx., engaging to diffuse a higher knowledge of modern techniques of extraction, caring of the renewal (mainly by introducing Siemens furnaces) of the metallurgic industrial co-operating with
Giovanni Curioni to the implementation of the regional geologic map.
He participated to the Universal Exhibition of Paris of 1867 as a scientific representative of the Provincial Council of Milan. At the end of his study staying, Axerio published several monographs, introducing the most recent results of the international applied research; among his numerous work, we can remember "Sulla fabbricazione dei laterizi", "Sulla calce e cementi", "Sull'arte vetraria", "Sull'arte ceramica" (On the manufacture of bricks, On lime and cements, On the glass art, On the ceramic art).
In 1873 Axerio was called to be a member of the jury in the Universal Exhibition of Vienna. In this occasion he printed a remarkable essay on the "L'industria del ferro" (Iron Industry).
Together with the metallurgic studies, there are important Axerio's works devoted to fossil fuels, "Sulla lignite di Val Gandino", "Sui giacimenti di combustibili fossili in Toscana" (On the lignite of Gandino Valley, On beds of fossil fuels in Tuscany), by which Axerio participated to the energetic problems, who engaged politicians, industrialists, economists and scientists during the two first decades of life in the united Italy.
Axerio was aware of the poor quality and quantity of Italian resources, but he thought the rational exploitation of existing coal basins as useful and necessary. He thought that around a renewed and dynamic industry could be developed also the chemical, metallurgic, and mechanical industries. On his opinion, the State task was to start the industry through large investments, and then entrust the exploitment to private companies in the long term. In addition to this Axerio proposed customs duties on foreign coal and lignite, to protect the domestic industry.
In spite of his numerous scientific and administrative tasks, Axerio never missed to perform an active role in the Provincial Council of Novara.
In 1879 the government entrusted Axerio to lead the Royal Industrial Museum of Turin, that since quite three years had not a stable guide. The appointment of a valuable technician as Axerio was, coincided with the entrance into force in September 1879, of the Regulation that had to renew the public Turinese image after a long term of crisis. The Museum was entrusted again with educational tasks both through special refreshing courses, addressed to managers of factories and qualified labour, and through degree courses addressed to industrial engineers.
In order to actually reach these tasks, Axerio in 1880 made a report on the Museum, where he underlined different organisational dysfunctions: prevalence of theoretical lessons versus practical exercises; some cabinets, mainly the cabinets of technical Chemistry and Physics, were in terrible situations; the library was poorly updated and collections needed a radical updating able to punctually follow the technological renewal, chiefly for mechanical and textile fields. From a didactical viewpoint, Axerio suggested to reorganise classes, reduce lessons and mainly pointed out the need to increase available funds by purchasing new materials. However, in spite of his good intentions, Axerio, could not bring forward the work he had started since a little time.
After falling ill during a trip to Rome, Axerio died in 1880. His successor Giacinto Berruti, could happily continue the reformation work of the Royal Industrial Museum.
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