Pouillet, Claude Servais Mathias

Born Cusance (Doubs), France, 16 February 1790

Died Paris, France, 14 June 1868

Claude Servais Mathias Pouillet, educated at Ecole Normale Supérieure, was a professor of physics at the Faculty of Science of Paris, a member of the French Academy of Science, and the Director of the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers. He invented a pyrheliometer and was the first to measure the solar constant. The high temperature of the solar surface that he derived drew scientists’ attention to the considerable energy radiated by the Sun and to the question of its origin.

Pouillet, the son of a stationer, grew up in Besançon, studied at Ecole Normale Supérieure between 1811 and 1813, and taught at that school until it was closed in 1822. He also taught physics at Collège Royal Bourbon, the Faculty of Science of Paris University, and Conservatoire Royal des Arts et Métiers. He was the director of the latter institute between 1832 and 1849. Pouillet became full professor of physics at Paris University in...