Charles-Edouard Guillaume was born in Fleurier, Switzerland, on February 15, 1861. Guillaume received his high school education at the Neuch?tel gymnasium. At the age of 17, he enrolled in the Zurich Polytechnic (later the Federal Institute of Technology). He rapidly developed an interest in physics, later claiming that Fran?ois Arago's text, ?loges acad?miques, was particularly influential on his decision to pursue science as a career. Guillaume was awarded a Ph.D. in 1882 for his thesis on electrolytic capacitors.
Guillaume spent his compulsory year of military service as an artillery officer, during which time he studied mechanics and ballistics. He was then offered a position with the newly created International Bureau of Weights and Measures in S?vres, France, just outside Paris. He worked there over the next half century, becoming associate director of the bureau in 1902, director in 1905, and finally honorary director upon his retirement in 1936. Guillaume's earliest work at the bureau was in the establishment, duplication, and distribution of international standards. That work included the most fundamental metrological operations, such as calibrating thermometers and making precise copies of the standard meter for distribution to countries around the world.
It was the latter task that resulted in an accidental discovery for which Guillaume is perhaps best known. The standard meter bar kept at the bureau in S?vres had been made of a platinum-iridium alloy to prevent corrosion and other changes.
Making dozens of copies of this bar from such costly metals was, however, prohibitively expensive. As a result, Guillaume began to look for other materials from which to make duplicates of the standard meter bar. One of the alloys Guillaume prepared consisted of about seven parts iron to three parts nickel. In working with this alloy, he found that it had an extremely low coefficient of expansion. He decided to undertake a systematic study of other iron-nickel alloys and eventually found one whose coefficient of expansion was zero. This alloy, containing about 36% nickel and 64% iron, was later named invar. The value of invar in metrology is obvious. Measuring devices made of the alloy will not change in size at all as a result of changes in temperature. But invar soon found applications in many other fields. For example, it became invaluable in clockmaking, as did a second alloy invented by Guillaume called elinvar. The watch part called the balance, if it contained one of these two alloys, eventually became known as a "Guillaume balance."
In addition to the Nobel Prize he was awarded in 1920, Guillaume received a number of other honors during his lifetime, including selection as a grand officer of the Legion of Honor, election as president of the French Physical Society, and receipt of honorary degrees from the universities of Geneva, Neuch?tel, and Paris. Guillaume was married in 1888 to A. M. Taufflich; they had three children. Guillaume died at S?vres on June 13, 1938.
Charles-Edouard Guillaume was born at Fleurier, in the Swiss-Jura, on February 15, 1861. His grandfather had left France for political reasons during the Revolution and established a watchmaking business in London. The business was carried on by his three sons but Charles' father, ?douard, eventually returned to settle in Fleurier. Guillaume received his early education in Neuch?tel before going to the Zurich Polytechnic where he obtained his doctor's degree. He spent a short time as an officer in the artillery before entering the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, as an assistant, in 1883. He became Associate Director in 1902 and from 1915 until his retirement in 1936, he was Director of the Bureau. He remained as Honorary Director from 1936 until his death.
|
|
| free web hits counter |
This is my BrainyGoose:
United States, IL, Chicago, English, Italian, Genry, Male, 21-25, bodybulding, swiming.