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Baron Charles Cagniard de la Tour (31 March 1777 – 5 July 1859) was a French engineer and physicist. Charles Cagniard was born in Paris, and after attending the École Polytechnique became one of the ingénieurs géographiques. He examined the mechanism of voice-production, invented a blowing machine and contributed to acoustics by inventing an improved siren. He also studied yeast.
In 1822, he discovered the critical point of a substance in his gun barrel experiments.[1] He sealed a flint ball in a sealed gun barrel filled with fluids at various temperatures, and rotated it to hear the splashing sound as it hit the liquid surface. He observed that above a certain temperature, there is no splashing sound. Above this temperature, the densities of the liquid and gas phases become equal and the distinction between them disappears, resulting in a single supercritical fluid phase. After this discovery, he performed quantitative measurements of the critical point of several substances such as water, alcohol, ether and carbon bisulphide.[2]
He was made a baron in 1818, and died in Paris.[3] Despite several claims to the contrary, no portraits of Baron Cagniard de la Tour exist.[4]
- ^ Charles Cagniard de la Tour (1822) "Exposé de quelques résultats obtenu par l'action combinée de la chaleur et de la compression sur certains liquides, tels que l'eau, l'alcool, l'éther sulfurique et l'essence de pétrole rectifiée" (Presentation of some results obtained by the combined action of heat and compression on certain liquids, such as water, alcohol, sulfuric ether [i.e., diethyl ether], and distilled petroleum spirit), Annales de chimie et de physique, 21 : 127-132.
See also:- Cagniard de la Tour (1822) "Supplément au Mémoire de M. Cagniard de la Tour, imprimé page 127 de ce cahier des Annales" (Supplement to the memoir of Mr. Cagniard de la Tour, printed on page 127 of this issue of the Annales), Annales de chimie et de physique, 21 : 178-182.
- Cagniard de la Tour (1823) "Nouvelle note de M. Cagniard de Latour, sur les effets qu'on obtient par l'application simultanée de la chaleur et de la compression à certains liquides" (New note from Mr. Cagniard de la Tour, on the effects that one obtains by the simultaneous application of heat and compression to certain liquids), Annales de chimie et de physique, 22 : 410-415.
- ^ Berche, B., Henkel, M., Kenna, R (2009) Critical phenomena: 150 years since Cagniard de la Tour. Journal of Physical Studies 13 (3), pp. 3001-1–3001-4.
- ^ Chisholm 1911.
- ^ Girolami, Gregory S. (2020). "A Brief History of Thermodynamics, As Illustrated by Books and People". Journal of Chemical and Engineering Data. 65 (3): 298–311. doi:10.1021/acs.jced.9b00515. S2CID 203146340.