Page 56 - 48Fundamentals of Compressible Fluid Mechanics

18 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

1.3.5.5 Gino Girolamo Fanno

Fanno a Jewish Engineer was born on
November 18, 1888. he studied in a tech-
nical institute in Venice and graduated with
very high grades as a mechanical engi-
neer. Fanno was not as lucky as his
brother, who was able to get into academia.
Faced with anti–semitism, Fanno left Italy to
Zurich, Switzerland in 1900 to attend gradu-
ate school for his master’s degree. In this
new place he was able to pose as a Ro-
man Catholic, even though for short time
he went to live in a Jewish home, Isaak
Baruch Weil’s family. As were many Jews
at that time, Fanno was fluent in several lan-
guages including Italian, English, German, Fig. 1.10: The photo of Gino Fanno ap-
and French. He likely had a good knowl- proximately in 1950
edge of Yiddish and possibly some Hebrew.
Consequently, he did not have a problem studying in a different language. In July
1904 he received his diploma (master). When one of Professor Stodola’s assis-
tants attended military service this temporary position was offered to Fanno. “Why
didn’t a talented guy like Fanno keep or obtain a position in academia after he pub-
lished his model?” The answer is tied to the fact that somehow rumors about his
roots began to surface. Additionally, the fact that his model was not a “smashing 49
success” did not help.
Later Fanno had to go back to Italy to find a job in industry. Fanno
turned out to be a good engineer and he later obtained a management position.
He married, and like his brother, Marco, was childless. He obtained a Ph.D. from
Regian Istituto Superiore d’Ingegneria di Genova. However, on February 1939
Fanno was degraded (denounced) and he lost his Ph.D. (is this the first case in
50
history) because his of his Jewish nationality . During the War (WWII), he had
to be under house arrest to avoid being sent to the “vacation camps.” To further
camouflage himself, Fanno converted to Catholicism. Apparently, Fanno had a
cache of old Italian currency (which was apparently still highly acceptable) which
helped him and his wife survive the war. After the war, Fanno was only able to
work in agriculture and agricultural engineering. Fanno passed way in 1960 without
world recognition for his model.
Fanno older brother, mentioned earlier Marco Fanno is a famous economist
who later developed fundamentals of the supply and demand theory.

49 Missing data about friction factor
50 In some places, the ridicules claims that Jews persecuted only because their religion. Clearly,
Fanno was not part of the Jewish religion (see his picture) only his nationality was Jewish.