Guillaume amontons biography
Guillaume Amontons
French scientific instrument inventor and physicist (1663-1705)
"Amontons" redirects here. For the lunar crater, see Amontons (crater).
Guillaume Amontons (31 August 1663 – 11 October 1705) was a French scientific instrument inventor and physicist. He was one of the pioneers in studying the problem of friction, which is the resistance to motion when bodies make contact. He is also known for his work on thermodynamics, the concept of absolute zero, and early engine design.
Life
Guillaume was born in Paris, France. His father was a lawyer from Normandy who had moved to the French capital. While still young, Guillaume lost his hearing and became mostly deaf. According to one biographer, Fontenelle, while studying perpetual motion, he became convinced of the importance of studying machines from a mathematical perspective. He never attended a university, but was able to study mathematics, the physical sciences, and celestial mechanics. He also spent time studying the skills of drawing, surveying, and architecture. He died in Paris, France.
Work
He was supported in his research career by the government, and was employed in various public works projects.
Scientific instruments
Among his contributions to scientific instrumentation were improvements to the barometer (1695), hygrometer (1687), and thermometer (1695), particularly for use of these instruments at sea. He also demonstrated an optical telegraph and proposed the use of his clepsydra (water clock) for keeping time on a ship at sea.
Thermodynamics
Amontons investigated the relationship between pressure and temperature in gases though he lacked accurate and precisethermometers. Though his results were at best semi-quantitative, he established that the pressure of a gas increases by roughly one-third between the temperatures of cold and the boiling point of water. This was a substantial step towards th " Amontons was one of the earliest scientists to develop improved scientific instruments for measuring temperature and pressure. Born in Paris in 1663, Amontons became deaf at a very early age. This apparent tragedy served to steer his interests toward books and academia, and later in life he was said to havebeen thankful for the concentration his deafness provided him. As a youth Amontons attempted to construct a perpetual motion machine, a fruitless attemptthat nevertheless solidified his interest in science and mechanics. After working on several public works projects, Amontons applied his skills to inventing. One of his first major projects was the invention in 1687 of an improved hygrometer, a device used to measure humidity and which consisted of a mercury-filled ball that expanded or contracted according to the air's water content. Just a year later he constructed a barometer. Beginning in 1695 Amontons worked on several instruments to be used on ships.Many devices of the age relied upon alcohol, mercury, or other liquids to provide a reading; unfortunately, these liquid-based instruments were thrown off by a ship's constant pitching. Several authors have attributed the invention of a fixed-volume air thermometer to Amontons. However, there is some doubtas to whether Amontons truly constructed such a device, and being the invention is credited to Grand Duke Ferdinand II of Tuscany (1610-1670). What is clear is that Amontons did invent a pressure-independent air thermometeras well as a cisternless barometer, both designed for shipboard use. Another area of controversy concerning Amonton's life is centered on the theory of an absolute zero temperature. In 1699 Amontons published a series of papers in which he discussed the effect of low temperature upon gas volumes. While he may have considered the possibility of a temperature so low that gas would contract into nothingness, there is little evidence within his papers that Amontons, Guillaume (b. Paris, France, 31 August 1663; d. Paris, 11 October 1705) physics. Amontons’s father was a lawyer from Normandy who settled in Paris. The boy became almost deaf during adolescence, and his interest then turned toward mechanics. After vain efforts to develop a perpetual motion machine, he decided, despite his family’s opposition, to study physical sciences and mathematics. After studying drawing, surveying, and architecture, he was employed on various public works projects that gave him practical knowledge of applied mechanics. Later he studied celestial mechanics and applied himself to the improvement of hygrometers, barometers, and thermometers. His first scientific production was a hygrometer in 1687. The apparatus consisted of a ball of beechwood, horn, or leather filled with mercury; it varied in size according to the humidity of the atmosphere. In 1688 he developed his shortened barometer, composed of several parallel tubes connected alternately at the top and bottom, with only alternate tubes containing mercury. Sometime between 1688 and 1695, Amontons tried out his optical telegraph in the presence of the royal family. He published no data on this experiment, but the device is known to have consisted of a series of stations, each equipped with a spyglass, for the rapid transmission of signals. The nature of the signals to be transmitted is not known, however. In 1695 Amontons sought to renew the use of the clepsydra as a timing apparatus on ships in order to solve the problem of determining longitude at sea. In his paper on this, he described two apparatuses that became well known by his name in the eighteenth century, although their use was never common. One was a cisternless barometer consisting of a tube narrow enough for the column of mercury to remain suspended. In his experiments with this, Amontons gradually broadened the tube into the shape of an inverted funnel. The mercury column then became shortened as atmos Deaf History -
Amontons, Guillaume