Charles Édouard Guillaume
Guillaume, Charles Édouard
Born Feb. 15, 1861, in Fleurier; died June 13, 1938, in Paris. Swiss physicist and metrologist.
Guillaume graduated from the University of Zürich in 1883 and began to work in the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Sévres; he became its director in 1915. From 1883 to 1889 he took part in work to determine the coefficient of linear expansion and comparison between platinum and iridium standard meters. Guillaume determined the volume of 1 kilogram of water. He obtained a series of alloys of the invar type, which are of great importance in precision instrument making, metrology, and geodesy. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1920.