Gustave-Adolphe Hirn

Gustave-Adolphe Hirn (August 21, 1815 - January 14, 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.

Life

Hirn was born in Logelbach, near Colmar into the prosperous textile-manufacturing family Haussmann. Baron Haussmann was a cousin. From an early age he worked on dye chemistry in the laboratory of the family business.

Hirn invented the pandynanometerFact|date=February 2007 in 1880 and published a theory of the origin and chemical composition of Saturn's rings, exchanging correspondence with Urbain Jean Joseph Leverrier.

He died in Logelbach.

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)
* - (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
* - (1887) "La thermodynamique et le travail chez les êtres vivants", "Revue Scientifique", 22, May, (Paris, Bureau des revues), pp673-684

Other

*Donkin, B. (1893) “Life and work of G.A. Hirn”, "Cassier's Magazine", p.236
*cite book|title=L'instrumentalisation du corps: Une archéologie de la rationalisation instrumentale du corps, de l'âge classique à l'époque hypermoderne (Collection L'ouverture philosophique)|author=Gleyse, J.|year=1997|publisher=Harmattan|id=ISBN 2-7384-5452-6 (in French)
*cite book|title=The Science of Energy: A Cultural History of Energy Physics in Victorian Britain|author=Smith, C.|year=1998|publisher=Chicago University Press|id=ISBN 0-226-76421-4
*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

External links

* [http://www.crdp-strasbourg.fr/bartho/mon_hir.htm&prev=/search%3Fq%3DGustave-Adolphe%2BHirn%2B%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG Short biography] (in French)
* [http://www.mfo.ac.uk/Publications/Revue%20Fox/papanelopoulou.htm Paris-Province: Energy Physics in Mid-nineteenth-century France] by Faidra Papanelopoulou
* [http://recherche.univ-montp3.fr/cerfee/article.php3?id_article=191 The Body and the Metaphors of the Engine]