Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Auguste De la Rive

DE LA RIVE, AUGUSTE (1801-1873), a Swiss physicist, distinguished chiefly for his researches on the subject of electricity, was born at Geneva on the 9th October 1801. He belonged to a good family closely connected with that of the Count Cavour, and he inherited his taste for natural science from his father, an eminent physician and chemist. After an unusually brilliant career as a student, he was ap pointed at the early nge of twenty-two to the chair of natural philosophy in the Academy of Geneva. For some years after his appointment he devoted himself specially to the investigation of the specific heat of gases, and to obser vations for determining the temperature of the earth s crust. In the latter inquiry he availed himself of an artesian well that had been bored to a depth of 700 feet, and his ebser- vations were adopted by Poisson as the basis of his calcula tions. The comparatively new subject of electricity, how ever, received much of his attention from the first, and it gradually became the chief object of his scientific work. His name is associated with original discoveries in connec tion with magnetism, electro-dynamics, the connection of magnetism with electricity, the properties of the. voltaic arc, and the passage of electricity through extremely rarefied media. His researches ou the last-mentioned subject led him to form a new theory of the aurora borealis, which, though not free from difficulties, is on the whole the most probable explanation of a very obscure phenomenon. The most valuable practical result of his scientific discoveries was the process of electro-gilding carried out by Messrs Elkington & Ruolz from a memoir which he communicated to the Academic des Sciences. By making it known in this way he voluntarily renounced all the profits of his discovery. Between 1853 and 1858 De la Rive published a complete treatise en electricity in three octavo volumes, which was regarded as a work of high authority, and was at once translated into English, German, and Italian. Its author s scientific reputation received the usual recognition in his election to the membership of most of the learned societies of Europe. In 1842 he received the grand prize of 3000 francs from the Academic des Sciences for his dis covery of the electro-gilding process ; and in 1864 he received the highest honour open to the scientific men of Europe in his nomination as one of the eight foreign associates of the Academy. De la Rive s birth and fortune gave him considerable social and political influence. He was distinguished for his hospitality to literary and scientific men, and for his interest in the welfare and independence of his native country. In 1860, when the annexation of Savoy and Nice had led the Genevese to fear French aggression, De la Rive was sent by his fellow-citizens on a special embassy to England, and succeeded in securing a declaration from the English Government, which was communicated privately to that of France, that any attack upon Geneva would be regarded as a casus belli. On the occasion of this visit the university of Oxford confejrred upon De la Rive the honorary degree of D.C.L. When on his way to pass the winter at Cannes he died suddenly at Marseilles, on the 28th November 1873.