Gaston Tissandier
Encyclopedia
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
chemist
Chemist
A chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density and acidity. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms...
, meteorologist, aviator
Aviator
An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...
and editor
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
. Adventurer could be added to the list of his titles, as he managed to escape besieged Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
by balloon
Balloon
A balloon is an inflatable flexible bag filled with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen, or air. Modern balloons can be made from materials such as rubber, latex, polychloroprene, or a nylon fabric, while some early balloons were made of dried animal bladders, such as the pig...
in September 1870. He founded and edited the scientific magazine La Nature
La Nature
La Nature was a French language magazine aimed at the popularization of science founded in 1873 by French scientist and adventurer Gaston Tissandier...
and wrote several books.
His brother was illustrator Albert Tissandier
Albert Tissandier
Albert Tissandier was a French architect, aviator, illustrator, editor and archaeologist. He was the brother of adventurer Gaston Tissandier with whom he collaborated in writing the magazine La Nature, a French language scientific journal aimed at the popularization of science...
(1839-1906). They were often seen together. His son Paul Tissandier
Paul Tissandier
Paul Tissandier was a French aviator.-Biography:Tissandier was the son of aviator Gaston Tissandier and nephew of Albert Tissandier, Gaston's brother....
(1881-1944) also became a well known aviator in his own right.
Biography
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
and in 1864 became the head of the experimental laboratory of Union nationales. He was also a teacher at Association polytechnique. His interest in meteorology
Meteorology
Meteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere. Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the 18th century. The 19th century saw breakthroughs occur after observing networks developed across several countries...
led him to take up aviation
Aviation
Aviation is the design, development, production, operation, and use of aircraft, especially heavier-than-air aircraft. Aviation is derived from avis, the Latin word for bird.-History:...
.
His first trip in the air was conducted at Calais in 1868 together with Claude-Jules Dufour, where his balloon drifted out over the sea and was brought back by an air stream of opposite direction in a higher layer of air. In September 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...
, he managed to leave the besieged Paris by balloon.
His most adventurous airtrip took place in April 1875. Together with Joseph Croce-Spinelli and Théodore Sivel, he was able to reach in a balloon the unheard-of altitude of 8,600 metres. Both of his companions died from breathing the thin air. Tissandier survived, but became deaf.
In 1883, Tissandier fit a Siemens
Siemens AG
Siemens AG is a German multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Munich, Germany. It is the largest Europe-based electronics and electrical engineering company....
electric motor to an airship
Airship
An airship or dirigible is a type of aerostat or "lighter-than-air aircraft" that can be steered and propelled through the air using rudders and propellers or other thrust mechanisms...
, thus creating the first electric-powered flight.
Tissandier reported his meteorological observations to the French Academy of Sciences
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 research...
. In 1873 he founded the weekly scientific magazine La Nature
La Nature
La Nature was a French language magazine aimed at the popularization of science founded in 1873 by French scientist and adventurer Gaston Tissandier...
, which he edited until 1896, after which it was continued by others. He also authored several books:
Works
- Eléments de Chimie (1870)
- L'Eau (1867)
- La Houille (1886)
- Histoire de mes ascensions récit de quarante voyages aériens (1868-1886) (1887; German edition 1872)
- En ballon! Pendant le siège de Paris. Souvenirs d'un aéronaute (1871)
- Les Merveilles de la photographie (1874)
- Histoire de la gravure typographique (1875)
- Simples notions sur les ballons (1876)
- A history and handbook of photography (La photographie, 1873)
- Le Grand Ballon captif à vapeur de M. Henry Giffard (1879)
- Les Martyrs de la science (1879)
- Observations météorologiques en ballon. Résumé de 25 ascensions aérostatiques (1879)
- Les ballons dirigeables: Application de l'électricité à la navigation aerienne; [Ouvrage accompagné de 35 fig. et de 4 pl. hors texte] (1885)
- La photographie en ballon, avec une table (1886)
- Histoire des ballons et des aéronautes célèbres (1890)
- La Tour EiffelEiffel TowerThe Eiffel Tower is a puddle iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris. Built in 1889, it has become both a global icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world...
de 300 mètres: description du monument, sa construction, ses organes mécaniques, son but et son utilité. Avec une lettre autographie de G. Eiffel (1889) - Bibliographie aéronautique: Catalogue de livres d'histoire, de science, de voyages et de fantaisie, traitant de la navigation aérienne ou des aérostats (1887)
Besides these scientific works, Tissandier also published several titles for the youth, such as Les récréations scientifiques ou l'enseignement par les jeux (1880), perhaps the very first title in the genre of books of simple science experiments that anybody can conduct in their own home. Its chapters were in part based on the column "physique sans appareils" (physics without apparatus) in La Nature.
External links
- La Nature, complete year runs 1873--1905, digitized by Conservatoire National des Arts et MétiersConservatoire National des Arts et MétiersThe Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers , or National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts, is a doctoral degree-granting higher education establishment operated by the French government, dedicated to providing education and conducting research for the promotion of science and industry...
, Paris - Tissandier Collection from the Library of Congress. Drawings, prints, and photographs by and collected by Gaston and Albert Tissandier.