Jacques Charles
| Jacques Charles | |
|---|---|
Jacques Alexandre César Charles, 1820
|
|
| Born |
November 12, 1746 Beaugency, Orléanais |
| Died |
April 7, 1823 (aged 76) Paris |
| Nationality | France |
| Fields |
physics mathematics hot air ballooning |
| Known for | Charles' Law |
Jacques Alexandre César Charles (November 12, 1746 – April 7, 1823) was a French inventor, scientist, mathematician, and balloonist. Charles wrote almost nothing about mathematics, and most of what has been credited to him was due to mistaking him with another Jacques Charles, also a member of the Paris Academy of Sciences, entering on May 12, 1785. He was sometimes called Charles the Geometer. (See J. B. Gough, Charles the Obscure, Isis 70, #254, pgs 576-579) Charles and the Robert brothers launched the world's first (unmanned) hydrogen-filled balloon in August 1783; then in December 1783, Charles and his co-pilot Nicolas-Louis Robert ascended to a height of about 1,800 feet (550 m) in a manned balloon. Their pioneering use of hydrogen for lift led to this type of balloon being named a Charlière (as opposed to a Montgolfière which used hot air).
Charles's law, describing how gases tend to expand when heated, was formulated by Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac in 1802, but he credited it to unpublished work by Jacques Charles.
Charles was elected to the Académie des Sciences in 1795 and subsequently became professor of physics at the Académie de Sciences.
Charles was born in Beaugency-sur-Loire in 1746, He married Julie Françoise Bouchaud des Hérettes (1784–1817), a creole woman 37 years younger than himself. Reportedly the poet Alphonse de Lamartine also fell in love with her, and she was the inspiration for Elvire in his 1820 autobiographical Poetic Meditation "Le Lac" ("The Lake"), which describes in retrospect the fervent love shared by a couple from the point of view of the bereaved man. Charles outlived her and died in Paris on April 7, 1823.
...
Wikipedia