Emilio Villari

Suffering from epileptic seizures from an early age he was privately educated in Naples including in literature under Leopoldo Rodino, math under Achille Sannia and physics from Luigi Palmieri.

[1] Villari spent some time in Germany in the laboratory of Gustav Magnus before joining the University of Bologna in 1871 as professor of physics.

Villari suggested that this was due to the existence of molecular magnets and their resistance to induced electromagnetism and differed in his theory from that of Maxwell and Kelvin.

The Villari effect is put into application in strain sensors in a wide range of engineering situations.

[4] Other experiments were on electrical capacitance, the elasticity of rubber, and the flow of liquids like mercury through tubes.