Portrait of Horace-Bénédict de Saussure (after the picture by Juehl, in the Library at Geneva)
Horace-Bénédict de Saussure (17 February 1740 – 22 January 1799) was a Swiss[1] geologist, meteorologist, physicist, mountaineer and Alpine explorer, often called the founder of alpinism and modern meteorology, and considered to be the first person to build a successful solar oven.
A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate causes of phenomena, and usually frame their understanding in mathematical terms. Physicists work across a wide range of research fields, spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic and particle physics, through biological physics, to cosmological length scales encompassing the universe as a whole. The field generally includes two types of physicists: experimental physicists who specialize in the observation of physical phenomena and the analysis of experiments, and theoretical physicists who specialize in mathematical modeling of physical systems to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena. Physicists can apply their knowledge towards solving practical problems or to developing new technologies.
A solar cooker is a device which uses the energy of direct sunlight to heat, cook or pasteurize drink and other food materials. Many solar cookers currently in use are relatively inexpensive, low-tech devices, although some are as powerful or as expensive as traditional stoves, and advanced, large-scale solar cookers can cook for hundreds of people. Because they use no fuel and cost nothing to operate, many nonprofit organizations are promoting their use worldwide in order to help reduce fuel costs and air pollution, and to slow down the deforestation and desertification caused by gathering firewood for cooking.
Christian von Mechel, Descent from Mont-Blanc in 1787 by H.B. de Saussure, copper engraving; collection of Teylers Museum, Haarlem
Horace-Bénédict de Saussure was born 17 February 1740, in Conches, near Geneva (today in Switzerland but then an independent republic), and died in Geneva 22 January 1799.
Chêne-Bougeries is a municipality in the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It recently crossed the symbolic barrier of 10,000 inhabitants and thus became officially a city.
Geneva is the second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situated where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the capital of the Republic and Canton of Geneva.
Saussure's family were Genevan patricians. His father, Nicolas de Saussure, was an agriculturist and author who may have sparked Horace-Bénédict's early interest in botany. After attending the "Collège" of his hometown, he completed his studies at the Geneva Academy in 1759 with a dissertation on heat (Dissertatio physica de igne). In 1760, he made the first of numerous trips to Chamonix Valley, at the foot of Mont Blanc, to collect plant specimens for the noted Swiss anatomist, physiologist and botanist Albrecht von Haller.[2] In 1760, Saussure offered a reward to the first man to reach the summit of Mont Blanc.[3] Inspired by his uncle, the naturalist Charles Bonnet, the young Saussure also did research on the physiology of plants and published Observations sur l'écorce des feuilles et des pétales (1762). The same year, at 22, he was elected professor of philosophy at the Academy of Geneva, where he lectured on physics one year, and on logic and metaphysics the next. He taught there until 1786, occasionally also lecturing on geography, geology, chemistry, and even astronomy.
Mont Blanc, meaning "White Mountain", is the highest mountain in the Alps and the highest in Europe west of Russia's Caucasus peaks. It rises 4,808.7 m (15,777 ft) above sea level and is ranked 11th in the world in topographic prominence. The mountain stands in a range called the Graian Alps, between the regions of Aosta Valley, Italy, and Savoie and Haute-Savoie, France. The location of the summit is on the watershed line between the valleys of Ferret and Veny in Italy and the valleys of Montjoie, and Arve in France, in the middle of what is generally considered to be the border between the two countries.
Albrecht von Haller was a Swiss anatomist, physiologist, naturalist, encyclopedist, bibliographer and poet. A pupil of Herman Boerhaave, he is often referred to as "the father of modern physiology."
Charles Bonnet, Genevan naturalist and philosophical writer, was born at Geneva, of a French family driven into the region by the religious persecution in the 16th century.
His early interest in botanical studies and glaciers[4] soon led Saussure to undertake other journeys across the Alps. In 1767, he completed his first tour of Mont-Blanc, a trip that did much to reveal the topography of the snowy portions of the Alps of Savoy. He also carried out experiments on heat and cold, on the weight of the atmosphere and on electricity and magnetism. For this, he devised what became one of the first electrometers. Other trips led him to Italy, where he studied Mt. Etna and other volcanoes (1772–73),[5] and to the extinct volcanoes of the Auvergne, in France.[6]
The Alps are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, separating Southern from Central and Western Europe and stretching approximately 1,200 kilometres (750 mi) across eight Alpine countries : France, Switzerland, Italy, Monaco, Liechtenstein, Austria, Germany, and Slovenia. The mountains were formed over tens of millions of years as the African and Eurasian tectonic plates collided. Extreme shortening caused by the event resulted in marine sedimentary rocks rising by thrusting and folding into high mountain peaks such as Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn. Mont Blanc spans the French–Italian border, and at 4,810 m (15,781 ft) is the highest mountain in the Alps. The Alpine region area contains about a hundred peaks higher than 4,000 metres (13,000 ft).
Topography is the study of the shape and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area could refer to the surface shapes and features themselves, or a description.
Although a patrician, Saussure held liberal views that induced him to present in 1774 a plan for the development of scientific education in the Geneva College, which would be open to all citizens, but this attempt failed. He was more successful in advocating the creation of the "Société des Arts" (1776), inspired by the London Society for the Improvement of Arts.
Beginning in 1774 Saussure sought to reach the summit of Mont-Blanc on the Italian side accompanied by the Courmayeur alpine guide Jean-Laurent Jordaney on the Miage glacier and on Mont Crammont.[7] In 1776 he ascended the Buet (3,096 m). He climbed the Crammont in 1774 and again in 1778, in which year he also explored the Valsorey glacier, near the Great St Bernard. In 1780 he climbed the Roche Michel, above the Mont Cenis Pass. In 1785, he made an unsuccessful attempt on Mont-Blanc by the Aiguille du Goûter route. Two Chamonix men, Michel Paccard and Jacques Balmat, attained the summit in 1786, by way of the Grands Mulets, and in 1787 Saussure himself made the third ascent of the mountain. His achievements did much to attract tourists to places such as Chamonix.
Courmayeur ) is a town and comune in northern Italy, in the autonomous region of Aosta Valley.
The Mont Buet is a mountain of the Chablais Alps in Haute-Savoie, France.
Aiguille du Goûter is a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif of Haute-Savoie, France.
Obsessed by the measurement of meteorological phenomena, Saussure invented and improved many kinds of apparatus, including the magnetometer, the cyanometer for estimating the blueness of the sky, the diaphanometer for judging the clarity of the atmosphere, the anemometer and the mountain eudiometer. Of particular importance was a hair hygrometer that he devised and used for a series of investigations on atmospheric humidity, evaporation, clouds, fogs and rain (Essais sur l'Hygrométrie, 1783). This instrument sparked a bitter controversy with Jean-André Deluc, who invented a whalebone hygrometer.[8]
A magnetometer or magnetic sensor is an instrument that measures magnetism—either the magnetization of a magnetic material like a ferromagnet, or the direction, strength, or relative change of a magnetic field at a particular location. A compass is a simple type of magnetometer, one that measures the direction of an ambient magnetic field.
A cyanometer is an instrument for measuring 'blueness', specifically the colour intensity of blue sky. It is attributed to Horace-Bénédict de Saussure and Alexander von Humboldt. It consists of squares of paper dyed in graduated shades of blue and arranged in a color circle or square that can be held up and compared to the color of the sky.
An anemometer is a device used for measuring wind speed, and is also a common weather station instrument. The term is derived from the Greek word anemos, which means wind, and is used to describe any wind speed instrument used in meteorology. The first known description of an anemometer was given by Leon Battista Alberti in 1450.
Instruments invented by Saussure
Anemometer: a metal plate catches the wind and weight keep it still; their mass measure the strength of the wind (MHS Geneva).
In 1789 Saussure climbed the Pizzo Bianco near Macugnaga, to observe the east wall of Monte Rosa, and crossed the Theodulpass (3,322 m) to Zermatt, which he was the first traveler to visit. On that occasion he climbed from the pass up the Klein Matterhorn (3,883 m), while in 1792 he spent three days making observations on the same pass without descending to Zermatt and then visited the Theodulhorn (3,472 m).
All of Saussure's observations and experiments from seven Alpine journeys were summed up and published in four quarto volumes, under the general title of Voyages dans les Alpes (1779 – 1796 (There was an octavo issue in eight volumes, issued from 1780 to 1796). The non-scientific portions of the work were first published in 1834, and often since, as Partie pittoresque des ouvrages de M. de Saussure.
Significance
The Alps were the focus of Saussure's investigations. He saw them as the grand key to the true theory of the earth, and they gave him the opportunity to study geology in a manner never previously attempted.[9] Saussure closely examined the inclination of the strata, the nature of the rocks, the fossils and the minerals.
Saussure had a thorough knowledge of the chemistry of the day and applied[2] it to the study of minerals, water and air. His geological observations made him a firm believer in the Neptunian theory: He regarded all rocks and minerals as deposited from aqueous solution or suspension, and attached much importance to the study of meteorological conditions. His work with rocks, erosion, and fossils also led him to believe that the earth was much older than generally thought and formed part of the basis of Darwin's Theory of Evolution.[10]
Saussure carried barometers and boiling-point thermometers to the summits of the highest mountains, and estimated the relative humidity of the atmosphere at different heights, its temperature, the strength of solar radiation, the composition of air and its transparency. Then, he investigated the temperature of the earth at all depths to which he could drive his thermometer staves, and the course, conditions and temperature of streams, rivers, glaciers and lakes, even of the sea.
Saussure adapted the thermometer to many purposes: for ascertaining the temperature of the air he used one with a fine bulb hung in the shade or whirled by a string, the latter form being converted into an evaporimeter by inserting its bulb into a piece of wet sponge and making it revolve in a circle of known radius, at a known rate; for experiments on the earth and in deep water he employed large thermometers wrapped in non-conducting coatings so as to render them extremely sluggish, and capable of long retaining the temperature once they had attained it.
With these instruments Saussure showed that the bottom water of deep lakes is uniformly cold at all seasons, and that seasonal changes in temperature take six months to penetrate to a depth of 30ft. in the earth. He recognized the immense advantages to meteorology of high-level observation stations, and whenever it was practicable he arranged for simultaneous observations to be made at different altitudes for as long periods as possible.
Saussure was particularly influential as a geologist,[11] and although his ideas on the underlying principles were often erroneous, he was instrumental in greatly advancing that science. He was an early user of the term "geology"—see the "Discours préliminaire" to volume I of his Voyages, published in 1779—though by no means its inventor as some have claimed, the English word having been used in the 1680s and its Latin counterpart "geologia" during the previous several centuries.
In 1767, Saussure constructed the first known Western solar oven, trying several designs before determining that a well-insulated box with three layers of glass to trap outgoing thermal radiation produced the most heat.[12] The highest temperature he reached was 230°F (110°C), which he found did not vary significantly when the box was carried from the top of Mt. Crammont in the Swiss Alps down to the Plains of Cournier, 4,852 feet lower in altitude and 34°F (1°C) warmer in temperature, thereby establishing that the external air temperature played no significant role in this solar heating effect.[13]
Saussurea pygmaea, from the genus named after Saussure
The genus of plants Saussurea, some adapted to growing in extreme high-alpine climates, is named after him and his plant-physiologist son Nicolas-Théodore de Saussure.[17] The Alpine Botanical Garden Saussurea, located at Pavillon du Mont Fréty, first station for the Skyway Monte Bianco cable car, in Courmayeur, Aosta Valley, is named after it.
His work as a mineralogist was also recognized. Saussurite is named after him.[18]
Saussure was honoured by being depicted on the 20 Swiss franc banknote of the sixth issue of Swiss National Bank notes (1979 to 1995, when replaced by the eighth issue; the notes were recalled in 2000 and will become valueless on 1 May 2020).
Saussure's son Nicolas-Théodore de Saussure was a noted specialist in plant chemistry and an early pioneer in photosynthesis research.
↑ At his birth Geneva was an independent republic, and at his death it was the capital of the French department of Léman
1 2 Douglas W. Freshfield, Horace-Bénédict de Saussure, éd. Slatkine, p. 60.
↑ Douglas W. Freshfield, Horace-Bénédict de Saussure, éd. Slatkine, p. 69.
↑ Albert V. Carozzi & John K. Newman, "Horace-Bénédict de Saussure: Forerunner in glaciology", Mémoires de la SPHN, vol. 48, 1995
↑ Daniela Vaj, "Saussure à la découverte de l'Italie (1772–1773)", in René Sigrist (ed.), H.-B. de Saussure (1740–1799). Un regard sur la Terre, Geneva, Georg, 2001, p. 269-299
↑ Albert V.Carozzi, Manuscrits et publications de Horace-Bénédict de Saussure sur l'origine du basalte (1772–1797), Geneva, Editions Zoé, 2000
↑ Douglas W. Freshfield, Horace-Bénédict de Saussure, éd. Slatkine.
↑ René Sigrist, "Scientific standards in the 1780s: A controversy over hygrometers", in John Heilbron & René Sigrist (eds), Jean-André Deluc. Historian of Earth and Man, Geneva, Slatkine, 2011, p. 147-183
↑ Albert V. Carozzi, "Forty years of thinking in front of the Alps: Saussure's (1796) unpublished theory of the Earth", Earth Sciences History, 8/2, 1989, pp. 123–140
↑ "Connections 2" with James Burke, Episode 4 "Whodunit".
↑ Marguerite Carozzi, "H.-B. de Saussure: James Hutton's obsession», Archives des Sciences, 53/2, 2000, p. 77-158
↑ René Sigrist, Le capteur solaire de Horace-Bénédict de Saussure. Genèse d'une science empirique. Genève, Passé-Présent / Jullien, 1993.
Jean-André Deluc or de Luc was a Swiss geologist, natural philosopher and meteorologist. He also devised measuring instruments.
Jean Senebier was a Genevan Calvinist pastor and naturalist. He was born in Geneva, the son of a wealthy merchant. He wrote extensively on plant physiology and was one of the major early pioneers of photosynthesis research. Senebier also published on the experimental method, first in 1775, and then in an expanded work, in 1802. His precise definition of the experimental method anticipated the work of noted French physiologist Claude Bernard fifty years later. Senebier also served as chief librarian of the Republic of Geneva.
A hygrometer is an instrument used to measure the amount of humidity and water vapor in the atmosphere, in soil, or in confined spaces. Humidity measurement instruments usually rely on measurements of some other quantity such as temperature, pressure, mass, a mechanical or electrical change in a substance as moisture is absorbed. By calibration and calculation, these measured quantities can lead to a measurement of humidity. Modern electronic devices use temperature of condensation, or changes in electrical capacitance or resistance to measure humidity differences. The first crude hygrometer was invented by the Italian Renaissance polymath Leonardo da Vinci in 1480 and a more modern version was created by Swiss polymath Johann Heinrich Lambert in 1755. Later in the year 1783, Swiss physicist and Geologist, Horace Benedict De Saussure invented the first hygrometer using human hair to measure humidity.
The year 1740 in science and technology involved some significant events.
The French Alps are the portions of the Alps mountain range that stand within France, located in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regions. While some of the ranges of the French Alps are entirely in France, others, such as the Mont Blanc massif, are shared with Switzerland and Italy.
Nicolas-Théodore de Saussure was a Swiss chemist and student of plant physiology who made seminal advances in phytochemistry. He is one of the major pioneers in the study of photosynthesis.
Jacques Balmat, called Balmat du Mont Blanc (1762–1834) was a mountaineer, a Savoyard mountain guide, born in the Chamonix valley in Savoy, at this time part of the Kingdom of Sardinia.
Louis Jurine was a Swiss physician, surgeon and naturalist mainly interested in entomology. He lived in Geneva.
Michel Gabriel Paccard (1757–1827) was a Savoyard doctor and alpinist, citizen of the Kingdom of Sardinia.
Marc-Auguste Pictet was a scientific journalist and an experimental natural philosopher born in Geneva, Republic of Geneva.
Meteorological instruments are the equipment used to sample the state of the atmosphere at a given time. Each science has its own unique sets of laboratory equipment. Meteorology, however, is a science which does not use much lab equipment but relies more on on-site observation and remote sensing equipment. In science, an observation, or observable, is an abstract idea that can be measured and for which data can be taken. Rain was one of the first quantities to be measured historically. Two other accurately measured weather-related variables are wind and humidity. Many attempts had been made prior to the 15th century to construct adequate equipment to measure atmospheric variables.
Albertine Adrienne Necker de Saussure was a Genevan and then Swiss writer and educationalist, and an early advocate of education for women.
The Bibliothèque Britannique was a monthly journal of the sciences and the arts published in Geneva by Marc-Auguste Pictet, his younger brother Charles, and their friend Frédéric-Guillaume Maurice.
Glacier Montanvert was the common name in the 18th century for a portion of the Alps glacier, now known as Mer de Glace, on the northern slopes of the Mont Blanc massif. Alternative spellings of Montanvert include Montainvert and Montvers. The Glacier Montanvert was a popular tourist destination of European travellers and is referenced in numerous travel writings and novels of the time.
The so-called Top of the Mont Blanc is a not appropriately named collection piece on display in the Oval Room of Teylers Museum. The specimen was supposedly cut off from the highest findable piece of exposed rock of the Rocher de la Tournette high on the snow covered summit ridge of the Mont Blanc on 3 August 1787, during one of the first climbs of the mountain by the Swiss scientific pioneer Horace-Bénédict de Saussure.
Éric Alibert is a French painter, specialising in nature and animals. He is also the author of books dedicated to several important natural sites of the world. He uses watercolour, oil, acrylic as well as other techniques including the use of gold leaves.
Jean-Pierre Christin was a French physicist, mathematician, astronomer and musician. His proposal in 1743 to reverse the Celsius thermometer scale was widely accepted and is still in use today.
DeCandolle, A.P. (1799). "XVII. Biographical memoirs of M. de Saussure". Philosophical Magazine. Series 1. 4 (13): 96–102. doi:10.1080/14786449908677038.
articles by E. Naville in the Bibliothèque universelle (March, April, May 1883)
chaps. v.-viii. of Ch. Durier's Le Mont-Blanc (Paris, various editions between 1877 and 1897).
René Sigrist, Le capteur solaire de Horace-Bénédict de Saussure. Genèse d'une science empirique. Geneva, Passé-Présent / Jullien, 1993.
Albert V. Carozzi & Gerda Bouvier, The scientific library of Horace-Bénédict de Saussure (1797): annotated catalog of an 18th-century bibliographic and historic treasure, Geneva, 1994 (Mémoires de la SPHN, t. 46).
René Sigrist (ed.), H.-B. de Saussure (1740–1799): un regard sur la terre. Geneva, Georg, 2001.
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Anemometer: a metal plate catches the wind and weight keep it still; their mass measure the strength of the wind (MHS Geneva).
Electrometer
