Amédée Guillemin (born 5 July 1826 in

Pierre-de-Bresse Pierre-de-Bresse () is a commune in the Saône-et-Loire department in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France. It is known locally for its palace. See also *Communes of the Saône-et-Loire department The following is a li ...

, died 2 January 1893 in Pierre-de-Bresse, France) was a French

science writer Science journalism conveys reporting about science to the public. The field typically involves interactions between scientists, journalists, and the public. Origins Modern science journalism dates back to ''Digdarshan'' (means showing the di ...

and a

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

. Guillemin started his studies at

Beaune Beaune () is the wine capital of Burgundy in the Côte d'Or department in eastern France. It is located between Lyon and Dijon. Beaune is one of the key wine centers in France, and the center of Burgundy wine production and business. The annu ...

college before taking his final degree in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

. From 1850 to 1860 he taught mathematics in a private school while writing articles for the Liberal press criticizing the

Second French Empire The Second French Empire (; officially the French Empire, ), was the 18-year Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 14 January 1852 to 27 October 1870, between the Second and the Third Republic of France. Historians in the 1930s ...

. In 1860, he moved to

Chambéry Chambéry (, , ; Arpitan: ''Chambèri'') is the prefecture of the Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of eastern France. The population of the commune of Chambéry was 58,917 as of 2019, while the population of the Chamb ...

where he became a junior deputy editor of the weekly political magazine ''La Savoie''. After the

annexation of Savoy The term annexation of Savoy to France is used to describe the union of all of Savoy—including the future Departments of France, departments of Savoy and Haute-Savoie, which corresponded to the eponymous duchy—and the County of Nice, which wa ...

by the French empire, he returned to Paris where he became the science editor of ''l’Avenir national'' (The Nation's Future). Guillemin presently started writing books of

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which rel ...

and astronomy which became very popular. He wrote "The Sky" which was translated into many languages. His major work, "The Physical World", consisted of five large volumes. His publisher,

Hachette Hachette may refer to: * Hachette (surname) * Hachette (publisher), a French publisher, the imprint of Lagardère Publishing ** Hachette Book Group, the American subsidiary ** Hachette Distribution Services, the distribution arm See also * Hachett ...

, encouraged him to write a series of booklets about astronomy and physics under the title "Small popular encyclopaedia", a scientifically sound but accessible collection about sciences and their applications. French astronomer Jacques Crovisier from the

Observatoire de Paris The Paris Observatory (french: Observatoire de Paris ), a research institution of the Paris Sciences et Lettres University, is the foremost astronomical observatory of France, and one of the largest astronomical centers in the world. Its histor ...

suggests he may have been a source of inspiration for

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraord ...

's 1865 novel, ''

From the Earth to the Moon ''From the Earth to the Moon: A Direct Route in 97 Hours, 20 Minutes'' (french: De la Terre à la Lune, trajet direct en 97 heures 20 minutes) is an 1865 novel by Jules Verne. It tells the story of the Baltimore Gun Club, a post-American Civil W ...

''.Jules Verne, les machines et la science; Jacques Crovoisier

Bibliography

*''La Lune'' (the

moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width ...

) *''Le Soleil'' (the

sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared rad ...

) *''La Lumière'' et les Couleurs (

light Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that can be perceived by the human eye. Visible light is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres (nm), corresponding to frequencies of 750–420 te ...

and

colour Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...

s) *''Le Son'' (

sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by ...

) *''Les Etoiles, notions d’astronomie sidérale'' (the

star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth make ...

s, notions of sidereal astronomy) *''Les Nébuleuses'' (nebulae) *''Le Feu souterrain''. Volcans et tremblements de terre (underground fire.

Volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates ...

es and

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...

s) containing 55 illustrations *''La Télégraphie et le téléphone'' (

telegraphy Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...

and the

telephone A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into el ...

) with 101 illustrations *''Le Monde Physique'' (the physical world) 5 volumes with 31 coloured plates, 80 black and white plates and 2012 illustrations *''Éléments de cosmographie'' (elements of

cosmography The term cosmography has two distinct meanings: traditionally it has been the protoscience of mapping the general features of the cosmos, heaven and Earth; more recently, it has been used to describe the ongoing effort to determine the large-sca ...

) *''La Terre et le ciel'' (the earth and the sky) 1888 *''La Vapeur'' (steam) ''Bibliothèque des merveilles'' collection *''Les Chemins de fer'' (railways) ''Bibliothèque des merveilles'' collection Guillemin also wrote ''L’Instruction républicaine'' (Republican Instruction), published by Lechevalier. He collaborated to a number of literary, scientific and political papers and magazines, notably ''La Nature'', '' la République Française'' and ''la Revue Philosophique et Religieuse''. Additionally he wrote Electricity and Magnetis

in which he presented a theory of magnetism. It was Guillemin who drafted the entry on astronomy in the second edition of Dorbigny's Dictionary of natural history. Guillemin was also involved in politics and remained faithful to his Liberalism, liberal convictions to the end.

Footnotes

*''La Nature'', N°1024 14 January 1893 *

Angelo De Gubernatis Count Angelo De Gubernatis (1840–26 February 1913), Italian man of letters, was born in Turin and educated there and at Berlin, where he studied philology. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature fourteen times. Life In 1862 he w ...

, ''Dictionnaire international des écrivains du jour'', 1891.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Guillemin, Amedee 1826 births 1893 deaths French science writers 19th-century French journalists French male journalists French male writers 19th-century French male writers