His early research, conducted in Bologna between 1872 and 1880, was primarily in
electrostatics. He invented an induction
electrometer in 1872, capable of detecting and amplifying small electrostatic charges, formulated mathematical descriptions of
vibrational motion, and discovered
magnetic hysteresis in 1880. Whilst an ordinary professor in physics at the University of Palermo, he studied the conduction of heat and electricity in bismuth. From 1885 to 1889 in
Padua, he studied the
photoelectric effect. Towards the end of 1889, he was called to the University of Bologna, his home city, where he worked for the rest of his life on subjects such as the
Zeeman effect,
X-rays, magnetism and the results of
Michelson's experiments.
(left) and
coherer detector Righi used in his experiments. His most well-known work is his 1890s investigations of Hertzian waves (
radio waves), which had been discovered in 1887. In 1894 Righi (along with Indian physicist
Jagadish Chandra Bose) was the first person to generate
microwaves, producing 12 GHz microwaves with a metal ball
spark oscillator, and detecting them with a dipole antenna and spark gap. He used his spark transmitter and detector at wavelengths of 20, 7.5 and 2.5 centimetres (frequencies of 1.5, 4 and 12 GHz) to perform classic
optics experiments with microwaves, using
quasioptical components,
prisms and
lenses made of
paraffin wax and
sulfur and wire
diffraction gratings to demonstrate
refraction,
diffraction, and
polarization of these short radio waves, providing experimental confirmation of
James Clerk Maxwell's 1873 theory that radio waves and light were both
electromagnetic waves, differing only in frequency. His work ''L'ottica delle oscillazioni elettriche'' (1897), which summarised his results, is considered a classic of experimental
electromagnetism. In 1903 Righi wrote a book on
wireless telegraphy. Righi influenced the young
Guglielmo Marconi the inventor of radio, who visited him at his lab. Marconi invented the first practical
wireless telegraphy radio transmitters and receivers in 1894 using Righi's four-ball spark oscillator in his transmitters. By 1900 he had begun to work on
X-rays and the
Zeeman effect. He also studied
gas under various conditions of pressure and
ionization, and worked on improvements to the
Michelson–Morley experiment from 1918. == Recognition ==