Charles Édouard Guillaume
Charles Edouard Guillaume | |
|---|---|
 Pastel portrait of Charles Édouard Guillaume in 1922, by L.-C Breslau. | |
| Born | February 15 1861 |
| Died | May 13 1938 |
| Nationality |  Swiss |
| Alma mater | Zurich Polytechnic |
| Known for | Invar and Elinvar |
| Awards | Nobel Prize (1920) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physicist |
| Institutions | Bureau International des Poids et Mesures, Sèvres |
Charles Édouard Guillaume (February 15 1861, Fleurier – June 13 1938, Sèvres), was a French-Swiss Physicist that received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1920 in recognition of the service he had rendered to precision measurements in Physics by his discovery of anomalies in nickel steel alloys.
He is known for his discovery of nickel-steel alloys he named invar and elinvar. 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.
Guillaume worked with Kristian Birkeland. He served at the Observatoire de Paris—Section de Meudon. He conducted several experiments with thermostatic measurements at the observatory. He was the first to determine the correct temperature of space.
He married A.M. Taufflieb (m. 1888) and they had three children.
Published works
- Guillaume, Charles-Edouard, "La Température de L'Espace", La Nature, volume 24, 1896.
- [tr. Temperature of Space]
- Guillaume, Charles-Edouard, "Études thermométriques". 1886.
- [tr. Studies on Thermometry]
- Guillaume, Charles-Edouard, "Traité de thermométrie". 1889.
- [tr. Treatise on Thermometry]
- Guillaume, Charles-Edouard, "Unités et Étalons". 1894.
- [tr. Units and Standards]
- Guillaume, Charles-Edouard, "Les rayons X". 1896.
- [tr. X-Rays]
- Guillaume, Charles-Edouard, "Recherches sur le nickel et ses alliages". 1898.
- [tr. Investigations on Nickel and its Alloys]
- Guillaume, Charles-Edouard, "La vie de la matière". 1899.
- [tr. The Life of Matter]
- Guillaume, Charles-Edouard, "La Convention du Mètre et le Bureau international des Poids et Mesures". 1902.
- [tr. Metrical Convention and the International Bureau of Weights and Measures]
- Guillaume, Charles-Edouard, "Les applications des aciers au nickel". 1904.
- [tr. Applications of Nickel-Steels]
- Guillaume, Charles-Edouard, "Des états de la matière". 1907.
- [tr. States of Matter]
- Guillaume, Charles-Edouard, "Les récents progrès du système métrique". 1907, 1913.
- [tr. Recent progress in the Metric System]
- Guillaume, Charles-Edouard, "Initiation à la Mécanique".
- [tr. Introduction to Mechanics]
External links and references
- Nobel Lectures, Physics 1901-1921, " Charles-Edouard Guillaume – Biography". Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam.
- lanl.gov, "History". Pioneers in the development of the Plasma Universe.