Gustave-Adolphe Hirn
Gustave-Adolphe Hirn (21 August 1815 – 14 January 1890) was a French physicist, astronomer. mathematician and engineer who made important measurements of the mechanical equivalent of heat and contributions to the early development of thermodynamics. He further applied his science in the practical development of steam engines.[1]
Life
Hirn was born in Logelbach, near Colmar into the prosperous textile-manufacturing family Haussmann. Baron Haussmann was a cousin. At 19, he entered his grandfather's cotton factory as a chemist. Later he worked as an engineer, and began research on mechanics, especially on calorics. He was made a member of the French Academy of Science in 1867; in 1880 founded a meteorological observatory near Colmar; and later devoted himself to astronomy. Hirn was educated in the shop, and his works are marked by much practical criticism of mere academic theory.[2]
Hirn invented the pandynanometer[citation needed] in 1880 and published a theory of the origin and chemical composition of Saturn's rings, exchanging correspondence with Urbain Jean Joseph Leverrier. In 1886, he was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society.[3]
He made significant contributions to the field of tribology. His study of friction in journal bearings revealed all the essential features of fluid film lubrication, although it lacked theoretical justification. For this contribution, he was named as one of the 23 "Men of Tribology" by Duncan Dowson.[4]
He died in Logelbach in 1890.
Honours
- Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur, (1865)
Bibliography
Works by Hirn
- Hirn G.A. (1849) “Nouvelles recherches sur le frottement des corps solides”, Comptes Rendus, 28, p. 290
- - (1855a) “Etudes sur les principaux phénomènes que présentent les frottements médiats et sur les diverses manières de déterminer la valeur mécanique des matières employées au graissage des machines”, Bulletin de la Société Industrielle de Mulhouse, 26, p. 202
- - (1855b) “Notice sur les lois de la production du calorique par les frottements médiats”, Bulletin de la Société Industrielle de Mulhouse, 26, p. 238
- - (1862) Théorie mécanique de la chaleur (Paris, Lieber)
- - (1863) Exposition analytique et expérimentale de la théorie de la chaleur (Paris, Mallet Bachelet)
- - (1869) Analyse de l'univers
- - (1870) Les paradynamometres
- - (1872) Mémoire sur les anneaux de Saturne
- - (1878) Étude sur une classe particuliere de tourbillons
- - (1882) “Recherches expérimentales sur la relation qui existe entre la résistance de l'air et sa température. Conséquences physiques et philosophiques qui découlent de ces expériences”, Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts de Belgique, 63, p. 91
- - (1882) La vie future et la science moderne
- - (1887) "La thermodynamique et le travail chez les êtres vivants", Revue Scientifique, 22, May, (Paris, Bureau des revues), pp. 673–684
- - (1889) Constitution de l'espace celeste
Other
- Donkin, B. (1893) “Life and work of G.A. Hirn”, Cassier's Magazine, pp. 233–239
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- Papanelopoulou, F., 'Gustave-Adolphe Hirn (1815-1890): engineering thermodynamics in mid-nineteenth-century France', British Journal for the History of Science (2006), 39(2), 231-254
References
External links
- Short biography (in French)[dead link]
- Paris-Province: Energy Physics in Mid-nineteenth-century France by Faidra Papanelopoulou
- The Body and the Metaphors of the Engine
- Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the New International Encyclopedia
- Pages with broken file links
- Articles with unsourced statements from February 2007
- Articles with dead external links from January 2012
- 1815 births
- 1890 deaths
- French physicists
- 19th-century French engineers
- 19th-century French astronomers
- Tribologists
- Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur
- Members of the French Academy of Sciences
- Members of the American Philosophical Society
