biography
| name: |
Saussure, Horace Bénédict de
|
pronunciation:
[sohsür]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1740–99)
|
| biography:
| Physicist and geologist, born in Geneva, SW Switzerland. He became professor of physics and philosophy at Geneva (1762–88), travelled in Germany, Italy, and England, and crossed the Alps by several routes. He was the first traveller to ascend Mont Blanc (1787). A pioneer in the study of mineralogy, botany, geology, and meteorology, his invaluable observations are recorded in Voyages dans les Alpes (1779–96, Travels in the Alps). He devised the hair hygrometer and other instruments. The mineral saussurite is named after him, and he introduced the term geology into scientific nomenclature. |
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