The Electro-chemistry Choice

Oronzio De Nora, after graduating in engineering, decided to enroll in the electrochemistry graduate course and, together with Professor Giacomo Carrara, worked on the electrolysis of alkali chlorides. Oronzio De Nora obtained the first patent of his career as a researcher and industrialist. Sodium hypochlorite, a product widely used in the textile industry for bleaching fabrics and a fixative in photographic printing processes, is produced using sodium chloride electrolytic cells in which bipolar electrodes are mounted and arranged vertically and horizontally. Seeking to make the production process more efficient, Oronzio De Nora noted that an inclined position of the electrodes would have provided many advantages. Indeed, the system produced dense caustic soda in the lower cathodic part and chlorine, in the gaseous state, in the upper anodic part. The inclination of the electrodes would have allowed the heavier former to slide downward and react with the lighter latter, which would spontaneously rise upward. The meeting of the two substances would then have formed hypochlorite.

After obtaining the German patent, Oronzio De Nora began the necessary laboratory tests. He built an initial pilot cell with inclined electrodes and started an experimental program. One morning, he injured his finger while straining to connect one rubber tube to another made of glass. Having no disinfectant, he dipped his finger in the salt and water solution that filled the cell. After letting the wound soak for a few seconds, he dried it carefully, dabbed it with a cloth, and resumed work. After a couple of hours, he removed the fabric and, to his surprise, noticed that the wound had healed. Oronzio De Nora reflected on what happened and became convinced that something in the cell solution had to work as a prodigious disinfectant and healer. It was 1923. Communication systems were indeed not what they are today. To communicate with his father in Altamura, Oronzio De Nora had the habit of sending a postcard each evening with an account of the day's study or work. Intrigued, his father asked him for a sample of the miraculous liquid he described in the message. So, Oronzio De Nora filled a small bottle with the fluid, sealed it in a box wrapped in newspaper, closed it with sturdy string, and headed to the Central Station. He boarded the Milan-Bari and deposited the package in the hat box of the first-class compartment.

The next day, the father performed the same actions in reverse. He boarded the train arriving in Bari, picked up the packet, opened it, and experimented with his son's newfound product. The product proved to be an effective disinfectant and an excellent antagonist of putrefaction processes. Oronzio and Michele De Nora intuited that the sodium hypochlorite formed during the electrolytic process could release active oxygen combined with organic compounds, disinfecting, sterilizing, and healing. The range of possible uses became vast by varying its dilutions: from treating wounds to washing fruits and vegetables to disinfecting standing water. It had to be given a name: Michele De Nora invented a suggestive trade name based on the combination of the alpha privative preceding the Greek word muche, "wound." Amuchina was born, a product destined to spread rapidly throughout the world.

1923 was a year of significant turning points in Oronzio De Nora's professional life. In the fall of that year, he stopped being a student and became an electrochemical entrepreneur. Count Piovene, the father of Guido Piovene, who would later become a famous writer, owned a plant in Milan to produce sodium hypochlorite. The company used a gravity electrolytic cell plant, which did not work well. The noble industrialist went to the Politecnico for advice from Professor Carraro, who referred him precisely to Oronzio De Nora, the most experienced among his students in electrolytic matters.

On the one hand, Oronzio De Nora rejoiced at receiving such a flattering offer; on the other hand, he worried because he feared he was not up to the task. Nevertheless, he went to Martesana Street, to Count Piovene's factory. As soon as he entered the factory, he put on his lab coat and concentrated on his work, driving anxieties and worries out of his head. He trafficked for a couple of days without allowing himself a moment's respite and eventually returned to the count of a plant in perfect working order. When the work was finished, Count Piovene proposed that he doubled the plant he had just put into operation, increasing it from 18 to 36 cells, managing all phases of design, construction, and assembly of the new cells himself. Oronzio De Nora accepted, and with the proceeds received, he was to set up a real machine shop. He found an old store that had a large wooden shed in the back, salvaged a blacksmith's bench and much of the equipment, bought the materials, and hired a worker who would help him build the first cells and who would remain at his side for the rest of his life. He designed the prototype cell, put on his overalls, and set it to work. He began to personally build the cells of that first order, one after the other, day after day.  

Oronzio De Nora's two souls, that of a scientist and a craftsman, had finally merged into that of an industrialist. Oronzio De Nora's future was begun.

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