Marc-Auguste Pictet (; 23 July 1752 – 19 April 1825) was a Genevan scientific journalist and experimental

natural philosopher Natural philosophy or philosophy of nature (from Latin ''philosophia naturalis'') is the philosophical study of physics, that is, nature and the physical universe, while ignoring any supernatural influence. It was dominant before the developme ...

. Pictet's main contribution to learning was his editing of the scientific section of the '' Bibliothèque Britannique'' (1796–1815), a publication devoted to the diffusion on the

Continent A continent is any of several large geographical regions. Continents are generally identified by convention (norm), convention rather than any strict criteria. A continent could be a single large landmass, a part of a very large landmass, as ...

of knowledge and arts produced in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

. His own scientific research focused on the fields of

physical science Physical science is a branch of natural science that studies non-living systems, in contrast to life science. It in turn has many branches, each referred to as a "physical science", together is called the "physical sciences". Definition ...

, especially

calorimetry In chemistry and thermodynamics, calorimetry () is the science or act of measuring changes in '' state variables'' of a body for the purpose of deriving the heat transfer associated with changes of its state due, for example, to chemical reac ...

, but also

astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...

geology Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth ...

meteorology Meteorology is the scientific study of the Earth's atmosphere and short-term atmospheric phenomena (i.e. weather), with a focus on weather forecasting. It has applications in the military, aviation, energy production, transport, agricultur ...

and technology, especially

chronometry Chronometry or horology () is the science studying the measurement of time and timekeeping. Chronometry enables the establishment of standard measurements of time, which have applications in a broad range of social and scientific areas. ''Hor ...

and the manufacture of fine earthenware.

Life

He was born in

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

Republic of Geneva The Canton of Geneva, officially the Republic and Canton of Geneva, is one of the Cantons of Switzerland, 26 cantons of the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of forty-five Municipality, municipalities, and the seat of the governme ...

on 23 July 1752, the son of Charles Pictet, a military officer serving in the mercenary troops of the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, and his wife, Marie Dunant. Marc-Auguste studied natural philosophy and

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

at the Academy of Geneva and qualified as a lawyer in 1774. After one year in England (1775–76), he became assistant to Jacques-André Mallet at the Geneva Observatory and took an interest in

and map-making. In 1778, he made his first trip around the

Mont-Blanc Mont Blanc (, ) is a mountain in the Alps, rising above sea level, located right at the France-Italy border, Franco-Italian border. It is the highest mountain in Europe outside the Caucasus Mountains, the List of European ultra-prominent peaks ...

with his master Horace-Bénédict de Saussure. In 1786, he would succeed him as professor of natural philosophy at the Academy of Geneva. By this time, he had assisted Saussure with an experiment that demonstrated the existence of what would later be called infra-red radiation. In a follow-up experiment, named ' Pictet's experiment' by

Count Rumford Colonel (United Kingdom), Colonel Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (26 March 175321 August 1814), was an American-born British military officer, scientist and inventor. Born in Woburn, Massachusetts, he sup ...

, Pictet discovered that by focusing the radiation from a flask of ice onto a thermometer using two concave mirrors, the effects of

cold Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjectivity, subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute t ...

could be reflected in the same way as the effects of

heat In thermodynamics, heat is energy in transfer between a thermodynamic system and its surroundings by such mechanisms as thermal conduction, electromagnetic radiation, and friction, which are microscopic in nature, involving sub-atomic, ato ...

. The result of his experiments on heat was published in 1790 as ''Essai sur le feu'' (English translation: ''An Essay on Fire'', 1791). At this time he had already converted to

Lavoisier Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier ( ; ; 26 August 17438 May 1794),
CNRS (

ideas on chemistry. In 1791, Pictet was one of the twelve founding members of the . In 1796, he, his younger brother

Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''* ...

, and his friend Frédéric-Guillaume Maurice began editing a monthly periodical entitled ''Bibliothèque Britannique'', which carried translations of significant scientific papers published in English by scholars such as Davy,

Hall In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and the Early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the gre ...

, Herschel, Leslie, Playfair, Rumford and Wollaston. In addition to scientific and technical topics, the journal published extracts of British literature and articles on agriculture. After 1815, this periodical included other European materials (mainly French, German and Italian) and took from then on the name of '' Bibliothèque Universelle de Genève''. As the second director of the Geneva Observatory (1790–1819), Pictet oversaw the installation of a

meteorological station A weather station is a facility, either on land or sea, with instruments and equipment for measuring atmospheric conditions to provide information for weather forecasts and to study the weather and climate. The measurements taken include tempera ...

. In 1817, he established an additional station on Great St. Bernard mountain in the

Alps The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...

. In 1815, the year Geneva adhered to the

Swiss Confederation Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerlan ...

, Pictet, and were the main agents in the creation of the . Pictet was a Fellow of the

Royal Society of London The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, r ...

from 1791, a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...

from 1796, an ''"associé libre"'' of the

Académie des Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...

from 1802, and a member of the

Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities The Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities () is an independent public institution, located in Munich. It appoints scholars whose research has contributed considerably to the increase of knowledge within their subject. The general goal of th ...

from 1808. His expertise, relationships and correspondence network included hundreds of scholars, extending throughout Western Europe and as far as the United States. In a letter to President

George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...

in 1795,

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (, 1743July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the primary author of the United States Declaration of Indepe ...

wrote that he saw Pictet and his colleagues (including Saussure and Senebrier) as ''"standing foremost among the literati of Europe"''.

Legacy

Since 1990, the Geneva Society of Physics and Natural History has offered a yearly award in history of science called the . It also awards a yearly medal to "a scholar whose work is recognized as an authority in the history of science". Winners are chosen by a panel of

University of Geneva The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public university, public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by French theologian John Calvin as a Theology, theological seminary. It rema ...

professors and field experts. The lunar crater Pictet was named in his honour in 1935 by astronomers Blagg and

Müller Müller may refer to: Companies * Müller (company), a German multinational dairy company ** Müller Milk & Ingredients, a UK subsidiary of the German company * Müller (store), a German retail chain * GMD Müller, a Swiss aerial lift manufacturi ...

Family

In 1766, he married Susanne Francoise Turrettini (1757–1811). The couple had three daughters: Dorothée Marie Anne (1777–1841), who married the Swiss Councillor of State , Caroline (1780–1841) and Albertine (1785–1834).''Généalogie de la famille Pictet de Genève, Descendants de Pierre Pictet reçu bourgeois le 14 octobre 1474'', Genève, Fondation des archives de la famille Pictet, 2010.

References

External links

*
Geneva Society of Physics and Natural History

Pictet Family Archives

Marc-Auguste Pictet Prize
* Pictet, Marc-Auguste (1791)
"An Essay on Fire"
English translation: W.B., M.D * List of works by James Pradier {{DEFAULTSORT:Pictet, Marc-Auguste 18th-century physicists from the Republic of Geneva 19th-century physicists from the Republic of Geneva Meteorologists from the Republic of Geneva Swiss meteorologists Swiss physicists Fellows of the Royal Society 1752 births 1825 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Marc-Auguste

Life

Legacy

Family

See also

References

External links