Marc Antoine Auguste Gaudin

Marc Antoine Augustin Gaudin ( born April 5, 1804 in Saintes, † August 2, 1880 in Paris) was a French chemist.

Life and career

From 1835 he worked in Paris Bureau des Longitudes. His scientific interests included photography, mineralogy and chemistry. He was the first chemist, who succeeded in producing artificial rubies. Of particular industrial importance was the first time it successful in 1839 the manufacture of glass from pure quartz. Typically glass is produced as a solidified, non- crystallized melt of the various components. At Einkomponentenglas quartz so pure silica, the melting point is significantly higher. In addition, its production requires a greater purity of the starting material. Produced by Gaudin quartz is distinguished by particularly advantageous properties: extreme heat resistance, low thermal expansion and high UV transmittance. It is particularly valuable as a material for high-temperature thermometer with a measuring range up to 1000 ° C. Due to its special characteristics, the special glass made ​​by Gaudin rose to prominence in the art.

But Gaudins main scientific focus was trying to chemical phenomena by the spatial arrangement of atoms in molecules ( and of molecules in crystals ) to explain. Gaudin was a representative of Avogadro's atomic hypothesis. His contributions built on previous research of amps and tried chemical compounds by geometric considerations and education to understand polyhedral molecules. He summed up his to forty years extending research in 1873 published work L'architecture du monde the atom together. During his lifetime, found Gaudin and his theories little scientific recognition.