Emile Plantamour

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Emile Plantamour (born May 14, 1815 in Geneva ; † September 7, 1882 there ) was a Swiss astronomer , meteorologist and geodesist .

Life

Following school, Plantamour attended the Fellenberg Institute in Hofwil from 1824 to 1832 and, from 1833, the Geneva Academy , where he was a student of Alfred Gautier , director of the Geneva observatory . Gautier introduced Plantamour to astronomy and offered him the prospect of being his successor at the chair and at the observatory, since he wanted to give up these positions because of an eye disease. After Plantamour had finished studying philosophy, he switched completely to astronomy and first went to Paris, where he was Arago's assistant from 1835 to 1837 . In 1837 he moved on to Königsberg zu Bessel , where he received his doctorate in 1838 with a thesis on methods for calculating comet orbits. He spent the winter of 1838/39 in Berlin with Encke , who, because of his skill in both observation and arithmetic, found him very suitable for an astronomical career. The way back to Geneva took him via Göttingen, where he was accepted by Gauss (with a recommendation from Humboldt ) .

Back in Geneva, Plantamour took over Gautier's professorship for astronomy in 1839 (from 1848 he was also professor of physical geography) and the management of the recently built observatory. He held these offices until a few months before his death, when he had to give them up for health reasons.

In the astronomical field, Plantamour dealt mainly with comet observations and calculations. Among other things, he carried out the definitive determination of the orbit of Mauvais' comet in 1844 (he found an orbital period of 102 050 ± 3 090 years) and in 1846 examined in detail the movement of the two nuclei of the broken Biela comet . Using his own resources, he procured a refractor with a ten inch opening for the observatory.

Plantamour also devoted himself to meteorological and hypsometric studies. Among other things, he carried out detailed studies of the Geneva climate, determined the height of the Great Saint Bernard using a hypsometric method and dealt with atmospheric phenomena.

From 1862 Plantamour was a member of the Swiss Geodetic Commission. He took over the five astronomical stations for which the geographical latitude and (by telegraphic signals) the difference in length to the Neuchâtel observatory and the Swiss Federal Observatory in Zurich as well as to the surrounding connecting stations had to be determined as part of the European degree measurement . He also telegraphed the difference in length between Geneva and Neuchâtel, Strasbourg, Munich, Lyon and Vienna. With a reversion pendulum he examined the acceleration due to gravity in Geneva and other places.

Since 1865 he was a corresponding member of the Académie des sciences . In 1878 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 1881 to the Royal Society of Edinburgh .

Works (selection)

  • Disquisitio de methodis traditis ad Cometarum orbitas determinandas. Koenigsberg 1839.
  • Mémoire sur la Comète Mauvais de l'année 1844. Geneva 1847
  • You Climat de Genève. Geneva 1863. ( digitized )
  • Experiences faites à Genève avec le pendule à réversion. Geneva 1866
  • Nouvelles études sur le Climat de Genève. Geneva 1876

literature

  • R. Wolf: Death notice. Astronomische Nachrichten, Vol. 103 (1882), p. 161. (Obituary to E. Plantamour)
  • NN: Emile Plantamour. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 43 (1883), p. 184. (Obituary, English)
  • NN: Emile Plantamour. Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 18 (May, 1882 - May, 1883), pp. 461-463. (Obituary, English)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ List of members since 1666: Letter P. Académie des sciences, accessed on February 4, 2020 (French).
  2. ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed March 30, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Plantamour, Emile
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss astronomer, meteorologist and geodesist
DATE OF BIRTH May 14, 1815
PLACE OF BIRTH Geneva
DATE OF DEATH September 7, 1882
Place of death Geneva