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The Italian physicist Macedonio Melloni (1798-1854), who is best known for his work on “radiant heat”, devoted the last years of his life to the field of electricity and magnetism. As part of his research, he designed and built an innovative induction electrometer shortly before his death. This apparatus was presented to the Royal Academy of Sciences of Naples a few days after the scientist's death. One of the three existing pieces of this apparatus is kept at the Museum of Physics of the Museum Center of Natural and Physical Sciences at the University of Naples Federico II. This paper provides an in-depth analysis of the structure and functioning of this electrometer, which, as the inscription on the apparatus states, was the “last discovery of Cavalier Melloni”.
