Revista CENIC. Ciencias Químicas ISSN: 1015-8553 [email protected] Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas Cuba Wisniak, Jaime Guillaume Amontons Revista CENIC. Ciencias Químicas, vol. 36, núm. 3, 2005, pp. 187-195 Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas La Habana, Cuba Disponible en: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=181620584008 Cómo citar el artículo Número completo Sistema de Información Científica Más información del artículo Red de Revistas Científicas de América Latina, el Caribe, España y Portugal Página de la revista en redalyc.org Proyecto académico sin fines de lucro, desarrollado bajo la iniciativa de acceso abierto Revista CENIC Ciencias Químicas, Vol. 36, No. 3, 2005. Guillaume Amontons Jaime Wisniak. Department of Chemical Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel 84105. [email protected] Recibido: 24 de agosto de 2004. Aceptado: 28 de octubre de 2004. Palabras clave: barómetro, termometría, cero absoluto, higrómetro, telégrafo, máquina de combustión externa, fricción en las máquinas. Key words: barometer, thermometry, absolute zero, hygrometer, telegraph, external-combustion machine, friction in machines. RESUMEN. Guillaume Amontons (1663-1705) fue un experimentador que se de- Many instruments had been de- dicó a la mejora de instrumentos usados en física, en particular, el barómetro y el veloped to measure in a gross man- termómetro. Dentro de ellos se destacan, en particular, un barómetro plegable, ner the humidity of air. Almost all un barómetro sin cisterna para usos marítimos, y un higrómetro. Experimentó systems made use of the hygro- con el termómetro de aire e hizo notar que con dicho aparato el máximo frío sería scopic properties of vegetable or aquel que reduciría el resorte (presión) del aire a cero, siendo así, el primero que animal fibers such as hemp, oats, dedujo la presencia de un cero absoluto de temperatura. Durante sus estudios leather, or strips of wood. These sobre el comportamiento del aire estableció que a volumen constante la presión materials were held by a weight or varía en forma inversa a la temperatura. Desarrolló una máquina de combustión spring in such a way to displace an externa y fue uno de los primeros en estudiar el roce en las máquinas (leyes de index in front of an arbitrary scale Amontons-Coulomb). as they expanded or contracted [The ABSTRACT. Guillaume Amontons (1663-1705) was an experimentalist who de- modern hair hygrometer was in- voted himself to the improvement of instruments employed in physical experi- vented by Horace Bénédict de .3 ments, particularly the barometer, and the thermometer. Of special note are a Saussure (1740-1799) in 1783] In folded barometer, a cisternless barometer to be used at sea, and a hygrometer of the year 1687, when he was only his invention. He experimented with an air-thermometer and pointed out that twenty-four years old, Amontons the extreme cold of such a thermometer would be that which reduced the spring presented a new hygroscope of his of the air (pressure) to nothing, thus being the first to recognize that the use of air design to the Académie des Sci- as a thermometric substance led to the inference of the existence of a zero of ences, which met with general ap- temperature. During his studies on the behavior of air he established that at probation His apparatus, based on constant volume the pressure varied inversely to the temperature. He devised an the expansion and contraction of a external-combustion machine and was among the first to study problems due to substance as it absorbs and loses friction in machines (Amontons-Coulomb laws). atmospheric moisture, consisted of a ball of beech wood, horn, or leather filled with mercury; it varied in size according to the humidity of the at- SOME DETAILS ABOUT LIFE this as a handicap, he considered it a mosphere. AND CAREER blessing, because it allowed him to Between 1688 and 1695 he devel- There are very few details about concentrate on his scientific work oped one of the first optical tele- the life and career of Guillaume without interruption. After unsuc- graph, which he thought would be Amontons; most of them appear in cessful labor to build up a perpetual of help to deaf people. In his scheme the obituary published by Bernard motion machine, he decided, de- messages were transmitted by le Bouvier de Fontenelle (1657-1757) spite his family disagreement, to means of a bright light that was vis- shortly after Amontonss death.1 study physical sciences, celestial ible to a person with a telescope at Guillaume Amontons was born mechanics, and mathematics, as the next station. Although he dem- in Paris on August 31, 1663, the son well as drawing, surveying, and ar- onstrated it to the King some time of an advocate who had left his na- chitecture. So far as is known he did between 1688 and 1695, it was never tive province of Normandy and es- not attend a university. Afterwards, adopted. As early as 1699 he pro- tablished himself at Paris. When after being employed on various posed a thermal motor, a machine Amontons was in the third form public works projects that gave him using hot air and external combus- (Troisiéme) of the Latin school at a practical knowledge of applied tion with direct rotation. In this Paris he became very sick and con- mechanics, he devoted himself to work he made his first observations tracted such a deafness that obliged the development, improvement, regarding the phenomenon of fric- him to renounce all communications and design of physical instru- tion. The experiments carried on in with mankind. Far from regarding ments.2 connection with this machine led 187 Revista CENIC Ciencias Químicas, Vol. 36, No. 3, 2005. him also to note that ordinary air pressure of 30 inches of mercury is ent coefficients of expansion, he going from the temperature of ice heated to the boiling temperature was able to establish that the theory to that of boiling water increases its of water the pressure increases by that liquids condense and cool volume by about one third. In the about one third, to 40 inches, while first, before expanding with ap- same year Amontons published one air at 60 inches increases to 80 inches, proaching heat was incorrect be- of the first known experimental and so forth. He observed that for cause the observed results were studies on the question of losses an equal elevation of temperature actually due to the expansion of the caused by friction in machines. The the increase of pressure of a gas was containers. Also, using a barometer well-known Amontons laws were in always in the same proportion, no as an altimeter, he tried to verify the reality a rediscovery of similar facts matter what the initial pressure. On exactitude of Mariottes law at low described by Leonardo da Vinci the basis of the latter finding he pressures. (1452-1519) years before. Amontonss proposed an explanation for certain In 1695 he published his only book, work included a clear statement of catastrophes, such as earthquakes: Remarques et experiences physiques the laws of proportionality between If there is air deep within the earth, sur la construction dune nouvette the friction and the mutual pressure it is extremely compressed and clepsydre, sur les barometres, les of the bodies in contact, as well as could reach an irresistible pressure thermometres et les hygrometers14 in an explanation of the causes of fric- as a result of a relatively small in- which he summarized all his work tion. crease in temperature. on the development of instruments. In 1695 Amontons sought to re- Amontons developed the air The book was dedicated to the new the use of the clepsydra (Note 1), thermometer, which relied on the Académie des Sciences. operated by the flow of water as a increase in volume of a gas with Amontons was appointed membre timing apparatus on ships in order temperature rather than the in- premier titulaire of the reformed to solve the problem of determining crease in volume of a liquid. With Académie in 1690, after being rec- longitude at sea. He proposed that its aid he found that Newtons law ommended by the astronomer Jean his clepsydra could be used at sea, of cooling was seriously inaccurate. Le Févre (1652-1706). although it would not have been ac- Using the air thermometer he de- According to Fontanelle1 Amontons curate enough to measure longi- vised a method to measure the lived a very healthy life until the tude. change in temperature in terms of beginning of October 1705 when he Between 1702 and 1703 Amontons a proportional change in pressure. had a sudden acute attack of peri- published some important papers He experimented with an air-ther- tonitis; the following infection led on thermometry, thermometers, mometer, in which the temperature to his death on October 11, 1705, at and on practical ways of graduating was defined by measuring the the age of forty-two. His wife and a ordinary alcohol thermometers. Af- length of a column of mercury, and two-month old daughter survived ter observing that the temperature pointed out that the extreme cold him. of water remained constant once it of such a thermometer would be A two-kilometer diameter moon achieved its boiling point, he pro- that which reduced the spring crater located at the coordinates 5° posed that the latter be used as the (pressure) of the air to nothing, thus 18' S/46° 48' O is named after Amon- fixed thermometric point. He was being the first to recognize that the tons. one of the first to realize the impor- use of air as a thermometric sub- tance of measuring the thermal ex- stance led to the inference of the SCIENTIFIC CONTRIBUTIONS pansion of elastic fluids.