Charles-Édouard Guillaume (; 15 February 1861 – 13 June 1938)

Personal life

Charles-Edouard Guillaume was born on 15 February 1861 in Fleurier, Switzerland, into a family of French descent. Guillaume received his early education in Neuchâtel, and obtained his Ph.D. in Physics from the Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich (now ETH Zurich) in 1883.

In 1888, Guillaume married A. M. Taufflieb, with whom he had three children.

Scientific career

Guillaume was head of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures. He also worked with Kristian Birkeland, serving at the Observatoire de Paris – Section de Meudon. He conducted several experiments with thermostatic measurements at the observatory.

Nickel–steel alloy

thumb|1918 [[Autochrome Lumière|Autochrome by Auguste Léon]]

Guillaume is known for his discovery of nickel–steel alloys he named invar, elinvar and , also known as red platinum. Invar has a near-zero coefficient of thermal expansion, making it useful in constructing precision instruments whose dimensions need to remain constant in spite of varying temperature. Elinvar has a near-zero thermal coefficient of the modulus of elasticity, making it useful in constructing instruments with springs that need to be unaffected by varying temperature, such as the marine chronometer. Elinvar is also non-magnetic, which is a secondary useful property for antimagnetic watches.

Space radiation

Guillaume is also known for the earliest estimation of the "radiation of the stars” in his 1896 article ("The Temperature of Space"). This publication made him a pioneer in plasma cosmology, the study of conditions far from any particular star. The concept was later known as the Cosmic microwave background. He was one of the first people in history to estimate the temperature of space, as 5–6 K.

Publications

  • 1886: Études thermométriques (Studies on Thermometry)
  • 1889: Traité de thermométrie de Precision (Treatise on Thermometry) via Internet Archive
  • 1894: Unités et Étalons (Units and Standards)
  • 1896: Les rayons X et la Photographie a traves les corps opaques (X-Rays) via Internet Archive
  • 1896:
  • 1898: Recherches sur le nickel et ses alliages (Investigations on Nickel and its Alloys)
  • 1899: La vie de la matière (The Life of Matter)
  • 1902: La Convention du Mètre et le Bureau international des Poids et Mesures (Metrical Convention and the International Bureau of Weights and Measures)
  • 1904: Les applications des aciers au nickel (Applications of Nickel-Steels) via Internet Archive
  • 1907: Des états de la matière (States of Matter)
  • 1909: Initiation à la Mécanique (Introduction to Mechanics) HathiTrust record
  • 1913: [1907] Les récents progrès du système métrique (Recent progress in the Metric System)

See also

  • Carlos Ibáñez e Ibáñez de Ibero – 1st president of the International Committee for Weights and Measures

Notes

References

  • Nobel Lectures, Physics 1901–1921, "Charles-Edouard Guillaume – Biography". Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam.
  • Rupert Thomas Gould (1960) The Marine Chronometer: its history and development, Holland Press.
  • C. E. Guillaume in Nature 1934

Further reading

  • Robert W. Cahn (2005) "An Unusual Nobel Prize", Notes and Records 59(2).
  • including the Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1920 Invar and Elinvar