Jean-Daniel Colladon

Jean-Daniel Colladon (also called Daniel Colladon; born December 15, 1802 in Geneva , † June 30, 1893 in Geneva) was a Swiss physicist .

Colladon was the son of Henri Colladon and Jeanne-Marthe Marié. After a short Jura -Studies in Geneva, he went to Paris to mathematics to study. He then worked in the laboratories of the physicists André-Marie Ampère and Joseph Fourier . From 1829 to 1839 he taught at the newly founded École Centrale in Paris. In 1839 he went back to Geneva and taught there until 1859 as a professor of mechanics at the Geneva Academy .

In 1837 he married Stéphanie-Andrienne Ador. The couple had four children: Andrienne-Mathilde, Jeanne-Marie, Pierre Louis Henri and Marie Amélie.

In the history of science , Colladon is most famous for the first accurate measurement of the speed of sound in water. In 1826 Colladon, with the help of his friend Charles-François Sturm, measured a speed of sound of 1435 m / s in Lake Geneva over a distance of 13,887 m (at 8 ° C water temperature, the modern value is 1441 m / s).

Initially he also worked in the field of compressibility of liquids and later in the fields of air electricity and especially gas factories and gas applications. He invented pneumatic drilling machines for tunnel construction , which were later used in the construction of the Gotthard tunnel . He also developed a floating water wheel (similar to a ship's mill ). From 1843–44 he directed the construction of the Geneva gas factory and in 1862 the construction of the Naples gas factory .

In 1876 he became a corresponding member of the Académie des Sciences .

His sister Antoinette Dunant-Colladon was the mother of Henry Dunant , the founder of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement .

bibliography

• René Sigrist: Jean-Daniel Colladon. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

Individual evidence

1. ^ List of members since 1666: Letter C. Académie des sciences, accessed on October 30, 2019 (French).