Décio Martins

A telegrafia eléctrica nas páginas de "O Instituto", revista da Academia de Coimbra

We analyze the advances of electric telegraphy and of wireless telegraphy in the world and, in particular, in Portugal, based on articles of the periodical O Instituto, published by the Instituto de Coimbra, a scientific society, founded in 1852, that gathered many Portuguese personalities of science and arts. We review the main articles on telegraphy: the paper by Jose Maria de Abreu in 1855, less than a month after the adjudication of the first telegraphic lines in Portugal; the assessment by the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Coimbra on the deliberations of the Congress and Conferences of Paris for the unification of electric units, where Santos Viegas, the President of the Coimbras Institute was present; and the paper of Alvaro Silva Basto in 1903 on wireless telegraphy. Special mention is made to the article by Adriano Paiva Brandao in 1978 on telescopy.

O Instituto de Coimbra e o ensino secundário em Portugal de 1836 a 1910: o caso das ciências físico-químicas

Tendo por base a revista O Instituto, analisamos a sucessao das varias reformas do ensino secundario em Portugal de 1836 a 1910, com particular enfase no ensino da Fisica e da Quimica. Essa publicacao do Instituto de Coimbra (IC) – a sociedade academica fundada em 1852 por professores da Universidade de Coimbra (UC) – saiu desde o ano de fundacao do IC ate 1981. Ao longo dos varios volumes, foram publicados numerosos artigos assinados por socios do IC, portugueses e estrangeiros, sobre o ensino secundario em Portugal. Os primeiros dez volumes contem os relatorios de Conselho Superior de Instrucao Publica, o organismo de aconselhamento educativo entao sedeado em Coimbra. No seu conjunto, esse corpo permite estudar a instrucao publica em Portugal no secundario, na perspectiva dos socios do IC. Sendo na sua maioria professores da UC, alguns deles tiveram protagonismo na proposta e concretizacao de varias das reformas do ensino nacional.

O instituto de coimbra e a análise química de águas minerais em portugal na segunda metade do Século XIX

O Instituto, journal published by the Institute of Coimbra (IC), an academic society founded in this city in 1852, contains many articles on hydrology and chemical analysis of water for human consumption, written by well-known Portuguese chemists and physicians. Based on these papers, we analyse the evolution of hydrology in Portugal throughout the second half of the 19th century, with emphasis on the chemical studies of mineral waters by the physicians Augusto da Costa Simoes, Francisco Alves and Jose Epifânio Marques, and by the chemists Joaquim dos Santos e Silva, Antonio Ferreira da Silva and Charles Lepierre, all of them members of the IC.