Horace benedict de saussure biography definition

Horace-Benedict de Saussure was Swiss physicist, geologist, and early Alpine explorer who also developed probably the first electrometer, a device for measuring electric potential by means of attraction or repulsion of charged bodies.

The Saussure family, whose fame has spread in Geneva, as it has abroad, came originally from Lorraine. They sought refuge in Geneva at the time of Calvin’s reform and were accepted into the bourgeoise in 1635. Several of his sons’ names passed into posterity. Nicolas (1709-1790) shone in agronomy, Nicolas-Theodore (1767-1845) in chemistry and his son Henri (1829-1905) in entomology. But the best known were Horace-Benedict (1740-1799) and Ferdinand (1857-1913).

Horace-Benedict de Saussure was Swiss physicist, geologist and meteorolgist. He was born in Conches, close to Geneva, on February 17, 1740. In 1746, six years old, he entered the public school of Geneva. In 1754 he continiued education in the Academy (University) of Geneva. In 1759, 19 years old, Horace-Benedict de Saussure completed his studies at the Academy, by presenting one Dissertatio physica of igne. In 1762 he became professor of philosophy and natural sciences at the Academy in Geneva (of which he was rector in 1774-1775), where he founded Societepour le Avancement des Arts. In May 1765 Horace-Benedict de Saussure married Albertine Boissier.

In 1768 Saussure began his geological journeys, in the course of which he crossed the Alps fourteen times.

The word geology was introduced into scientific nomenclature by Saussure with the publication of the first volume of his Voyages dans les Alpes (1779-96; “Travels in the Alps”), a work that contains the results of more than 30 years of geologic studies.

Mountaineering in a contemporary sporting sense was born when a young Genevese scientist, Horace-Benedict de Saussure, on a first visit to Chamonix in 1760, viewed Mont Blanc (at 15,771 feet [4,807 m] the tallest peak in Europe) and determined he would c

On August 3, 1787, Swissphysicist and Alpine traveller Horace-Bénédict de Saussure made the third ascent of the Mount Blanc and determined via scientific measurement Mont Blanc to be the highest mountain in Europe.

Horace-Benédict de Saussure – Growing Up in the Alps

Horace Bénédicte de Saussure was born on February 17, 1740 near Geneva, Switzerland. Saussure received encouragement from his father, Nicolas de Saussure, his uncle Charles Bonnet, the naturalist and poet Albrecht von Haller and the physician Théodore Tronchin. From 1757 he studied natural sciences at the Academy of Geneva, where he received his doctorate in 1759. In 1862, at the age of only 22, Saussure was appointed professor at the University of Geneva. Recognized are his merits in geology, of which he is one of the founders, in atmospheric physics and related sciences. He delivered remarkable plant-anatomical work. Glaciology also owes its foundations to him. During his years as a scientist, Saussure traveled through France, the Netherlands, England, Italy as well as Sicily and Alps. In the Alps, Saussure mostly focused on the Chamonix area. In 1760, it is believed, Saussure first began to plan his ascent to Mount Blanc and tried to find an adequate route.

Mont Blanc

In 1787, one year after Mount Blanc had been successfully ascended by two Chamonix men by way of the Grands Mulets, Horace-Bénédict de Saussure also reached the mountain top among with several servants and guides. There, he also was able to perform the first scientific experiments and observations. For instance, on the summit, Saussure made first barometricmeasurements and on August 3, 1787 came to the result, that Mount Blanc was the highest mountain in Europe.

Further Achievements

De Saussure invented an electrometer and improved the hygro

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(b. near Geneva [Conches], 17 February 1740; d. Geneva, 22 January 1799)

geology, meteorology, botany education.

Saussure’ ancestors emigranted to Geneva from France and Italy to escape the religious persecutions of the sixteenth century. (The name “Saulxures” is still to be found in several villages in Lorraine.) The family contained a number of writers and scientists. Saussure may have inherited his early interest in botany from his father, the agricultural author Nicolas de Saussure: from his mother, an invalid, he inherited an ability to endure hardship, a philosophical turn of mind, and a delicate constitution. He was sent to the Collège of Geneva when he was six and entered the university there when he was fourteen. During his early years he also took long walking trips in the vicinity of Geneva and in the Salève, the Voirons, and the Jura, and was strongly influenced by two naturalists, his uncle Charles Bonnet and the physician and botanist Albrecht von Haller.

Saussure completed a degree in philosophy in 1759 with a dissertation on the transmission of heat from the rays of the sun. In 1760 he made the first of a number of trips to Chamonix, on this occasion for the specific purpose of collecting plant specimens for Haller. He wrote a lyrical description of the mountains and glaciers of the area and climbed the Brévent with Pierre Simon, who served as his guide on a number of subsequent occasions. In addition, Saussure placed a notice in each of the surrounding parishes, offering a handsome reward to the first person to climb Mont Blanc.

In 1761 Saussure was a candidate for the chair of mathematics at the Academy of Geneva, but he was not elected: he therefore turned for consolation to the classical authors and continued his botanical investigations. His treatise Observations sur l’écorce des feuilles et des pétales. published in 1762, was dedicated to Haller. He presented this, together with a philosophical th