author

Enrico Angelo Lodovico Negretti

1818–1879

An Italian-born instrument maker who built a life and career in London, he helped turn careful measurement into a thriving business. Best known as the “Negretti” in Negretti & Zambra, he also co-wrote a practical nineteenth-century guide to meteorological instruments.

1 Audiobook

A Treatise on Meteorological Instruments

A Treatise on Meteorological Instruments

by Enrico Angelo Lodovico Negretti, Joseph Zambra

About the author

Born in Como in 1818, Enrico Angelo Lodovico Negretti later became known in England as Henry Negretti. He moved to England while young and learned the craft of making scientific instruments from established makers in London, building expertise in barometers, thermometers, and related tools.

In 1850 he formed the partnership with Joseph Warren Zambra that created Negretti & Zambra, a London firm that became well known for scientific and optical instruments. The company earned recognition at the Great Exhibition of 1851 and was later appointed instrument maker to Queen Victoria, the Royal Observatory, and the British Admiralty. Negretti was also elected a fellow of the British Meteorological Society, reflecting how closely his work was tied to the growing science of weather observation.

He is remembered today both as a maker and as a writer. With Zambra, he co-authored A Treatise on Meteorological Instruments, a clear, practical book explaining how these devices worked and why they mattered. He died in Hendon in 1879.