HIRN

FRANCE (see also List of Individuals)

\

21.8.1815 Logelbach/F - 14.1.1890 Colmar/F

\

Gustave-Adolphe Hirn initiated his first researches in his father's textile business. After self-studies he became there an engineer until 1880, the year he founded the Meteorological Institute of Colmar. From that time he exclusively was a private scientist and published shortly before passing away his notable work on the Constitution of space. He was a Member of Académie des Sciences from 1867 and of Accademia dei Lincei from 1888.

\

Hirn's first work in 1845 was related to the design of ventilators, an important issue in the early times of industrialization. Next, he proposed to measure water flows in rectangular channels with the screen method, which was perfected until the end of the 19th century. The paper published in 1854 relates to friction as a mechanical problem which had not been investigated so far in detail. He expressed the friction force as the product between a coefficient, the contact surface times the velocity and the pressure. Hirn observed that the friction coefficient between two dry metal surfaces was independent from the difference velocity but noted a significant difference of friction if a lubricant was added. This far reaching consequence was of course a fundamental finding for industrial purposes. Hirn proceeded in the analysis of the relation between friction and heat generation; the works of Robert Mayer presented some ten years earlier were carefully reanalyzed and put into perspective. Hirn became therefore with Mayer another great pioneer in thermodynamics with applications in the equivalent of heat, the mechanical theory of heat and the effect of friction on air resistance. Hirn also contributed significantly to the mechanics of steam machines. He further proposed instruments by which the heat transfer could be indirectly measured.

\

_{Anonymous (1890). Gustav Adolf Hirn. Zeitschrift Verein Deutscher Ingenieure 34(10): 232-233. P}

_{Anonymous (1891). G.-A. Hirn. Bulletin Société d'Histoire Naturelle Colmar NS 1: 183-353. P}

_{Hartenberg, R.S. (1972). Hirn, Gustave Adolphe. Dictionary of Scientific Biography 6: 431-432.}

_{Hirn, G.A. (1858). Recherches sur l'équivalent mécanique de la chaleur. Colmar.}

_{Hirn, G.A. (1863). Esquisse élémentaire de la théorie mécanique de la chaleur et de ses conséquences philosophiques. Bulletin Société d'Histoire Naturelle Colmar 4: 3-126.}

_{Hirn, G.A. (1868). Théorie mécanique de la chaleur. Gauthier-Villars: Paris. Hirn, G.A. (1886). Sur la vitesse limite d'écoulement des gaz. Paris.}

_{Keller, X. (1911). Gustav Adolf Hirn, sein Leben und seine Werke. Beiträge zur Geschichte der Technik 3: 20-60. P}