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Amontons, Guillaume
- 1. Dates
- Born: Paris, 31 Aug. 1663
- Died: Paris, 11 Oct. 1705
- Dateinfo: Dates Certain
- Lifespan: 42
- 2. Father
- Occupation: Lawyer
- His father was a lawyer from Normandy who settled in Paris.
- No information on financial status.
- 3. Nationality
- Birth: Paris, France
- Career: France
- Death: Paris, France
- 4. Education
- Schooling: No University
- Amontons studied physical sciences, mathematics, and celestial mechanics. He also studied drawing, surveying, architecture.
- 5. Religion
- Affiliation: Catholic (assumed)
- 6. Scientific Disciplines
- Primary: Mechanics, Instrumentation
- Published his only book, Remarques et experiences physiques sur la construction d'une nouvelle clepsydre (Paris, 1695), and many papers.
- Main contributions are made in experimental physics and scientific instruments.
- 7. Means of Support
- Primary: Government
- He was employed on various public works projects.
- He became a member of the Académie.
- 8. Patronage
- Type: Scientist
- Amontons tried out his optical telegraph in the presence of the royal family sometime between 1688 and 1695. There is no evidence that anything came of this.
- He dedicated his only book, Remarques & experiences physiques sur la construction d'une nouvelle clepsydre, sur les barometres, thermometres, & hydrometres, to the Académie des Sciences.
- He was proposed as a member of the Académie by LeFévre.
- 9. Technological Involvement
- Types: Instruments, Civil Engineering, Navigation, Mechanical Devices
- Hygrometer, 1687.
- Optical telegraph, 1688-1695. I am listing this under Civil Engineering.
- Cisternless barameter, 1695.
- Air themometer independent of the atmospheric pressure, 1695.
- Thermic motor, 1699.
- He proposed that his Clepsydra could be used to keep time at sea.
- 10. Scientific Societies
- Membership: Académie des Sciences
- He was one of the membre premier titulaire of the reformed Académie in 1690. He was "elevated" by the astronomer LeFévre.
- Sources
- Maurice Daumas, Les instruments scientifique aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siecles, (Paris, 1953). Q185 .D24. No biographical information.
- Bernard le Bovier de Frontenelle, "Eloge de M. Amontons" in Histoire de l'Academie Royale des Sciences (1705), pp. 189-94.
- Académie des Sciences, Index biographique de l'Académie des Sciences, (Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1979), p. 106.
- Compiled by:
- Richard S. Westfall
- Department of History and Philosophy of Science
- Indiana University
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