Émile Hilaire Amagat (2 January 1841 in

Saint-Satur Saint-Satur () is a commune in the Cher department in central France. It is a medieval town near the river Loire in the former province of Berry. History Located in the area of Gaul settled by the powerful Celtic tribe, the Bituriges, or t ...

– 15 February 1915) was a French

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

. His doctoral thesis, published in 1872, expanded on the work of

Thomas Andrews Thomas Andrews Jr. (7 February 1873 – 15 April 1912) was a British businessman and shipbuilder, who was managing director and head of the drafting department of the shipbuilding company Harland and Wolff in Belfast, Ireland. He was the naval ...

, and included plots of the

isotherms A contour line (also isoline, isopleth, isoquant or isarithm) of a function of two variables is a curve along which the function has a constant value, so that the curve joins points of equal value. It is a plane section of the three-dimensi ...

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalent bond, covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in a gas state at room temperature and at norma ...

at high pressures. Amagat published a paper in 1877 that contradicted the current understanding at the time, concluding that the coefficient of

compressibility In thermodynamics and fluid mechanics, the compressibility (also known as the coefficient of compressibility or, if the temperature is held constant, the isothermal compressibility) is a measure of the instantaneous relative volume change of a f ...

of fluids decreased with increasing pressure. He continued to publish data on isotherms for a number of different gases between 1879 and 1882, and invented the hydraulic manometer, which was able to withstand up to 3200 atmospheres, as opposed to 400 atmospheres using a glass apparatus. In 1880 he published his law of partial volumes, now known as Amagat's law. For his studies, he developed many original piezometer devices. His originality went so far as to use the depth of a mine shaft being drilled to reach high pressures of 430 atmospheres in order to study the equations of state of certain gases. His expertise led him to collaborate with the physicist Peter Tait in the development of a piezometer suitable for measuring the compressibility of liquids. Amagat was elected a member of the

French Academy of 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 ...

on 9 June 1902. A unit of number density, amagat, was named after him. He was elected a foreign member 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 ...

in 1897. The French Academy of Sciences gave him the posthumous award of the Prix Jean Reynaud for 1915.

In film

* In 2016 Polish film ''

Marie Curie Maria Salomea Skłodowska-Curie (; ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934), known simply as Marie Curie ( ; ), was a Polish and naturalised-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was List of female ...

'', Amagat was played by

Daniel Olbrychski Daniel Marcel Olbrychski (; born 27 February 1945) is a Polish people, Polish film actor, film and theatre actor who is widely considered one of the greatest Polish actors of his generation. He appeared in 180 films and TV productions and is bes ...

References

External links

* 1841 births 1915 deaths People from Cher (department) Members of the Ligue de la patrie française Foreign members of the Royal Society Honorary Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Members of the French Academy of Sciences {{France-physicist-stub