Pierre Chappuis (physicist)

Pierre Chappuis (9 October 1855, in Bremblens, Switzerland – 15 February 1916, in Basel, Switzerland) was a Swiss physicist who was candidate to the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1902, 1903 and 1904.

Pierre Chappuis
Born9 October 1855
Bremblens
Died15 February 1916
Basel
NationalitySwiss
Scientific career
FieldsPhysics

Biography

edit

His parents were the philosopher and farmer Jean Louis Chappuis and Louise Charlotte Henriette Roux.[1]

He initially studied in Basel. From 1877 he was in Leipzig, where he obtained his doctorate 2 years later with the thesis Sur la condensation des gaz à la surface du verre ("On the condensation of gases on the surface of glass").[2]

In 1880 he worked at the Institute of Physics in Basel. From 1882 to 1902 he was attached to the Bureau international des poids et mesures in Sèvres, where he distinguished himself for his ability to determine the values ​​of various physical constants, such as the boiling point of sulfur.[3]

His work on thermometers was so important that the centigrade scale of his hydrogen thermometer was adopted as the international standard on 15 October 1887.

In 1889 Chappuis married Esther Julie Sarasin (1863–1917), daughter of the Basel entrepreneur and local politician Rudolf Sarasin (1831–1905) with whom he had seven children.[4]

From 1902 he returned to Basel for family reasons and ran his own private laboratory there. He collaborated with the Swiss Federal Office of Metrology, contributing to the drafting of the foundations for international treaties on the metric system. He held various positions in Swiss scientific societies, such as the presidency of the National Research Society in Basel from 1904 to 1906.

He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1902, 1903 and 1904.[5]

Pierre Chappuis is buried in the Wolfgottesacker cemetery in Basel.

Honours

edit

Notes

edit
  1. ^ a b c Diehl, Peter. "Pierre Chappuis".
  2. ^ Bichat, E. (1880). "PIERRE CHAPPUIS. — Ueber die Verdichtung der Gase auf Glasoberflächen (Sur la condensation des gaz à la surface du verre); Annalen der Physik und Chemie, nouvelle série, t. VIII, p. 1 et 671". Journal de Physique Théorique et Appliquée (in French). 9 (1): 142–143. doi:10.1051/jphystap:018800090014200. ISSN 0368-3893.
  3. ^ "Chappuis, Pierre - Enciclopedia". Treccani (in Italian). Retrieved 2024-11-04.
  4. ^ "SaH" (PDF). stroux.org.
  5. ^ Mehlin, Hans (2024-05-21). "Nomination%20Archive". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved 2024-11-04.

Bibliography

edit
edit