Emile Plantamour

Emile Plantamour or Émile Plantamour (14 May 1815 – 7 September 1882) was a Swiss astronomer.

Biography He was the son of François-Théodore, Hospital director, and of Louise Saladin. He was born in Geneva.

He studied astronomy with Jean-Alfred Gautier and worked with François Arago in Paris, Alexander von Humboldt and Johann Franz Encke in Berlin, Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel at the University of Königsberg and Carl Friedrich Gauss at the University of Göttingen.

He was the fourth director of the Observatory of Geneva from 1839 to 1882 (43 years) and honorary professor at the Academy of Geneva; then professor at the University of Geneva when it was established in 1873. He was three times rector of the Academy.

Under his direction, the Observatory of Geneva constructed a structure for magnetic observations, an extension of the main building and a new room for an equatorial mount.

His scientific works involved astronomy, meteorology, chronometry, magnetism, geodesy and gravimetry. In the 1860s, he became a member of the Swiss Geodetic Commission a commission of the Swiss Academy of Natural Sciences. This commission was created during the publication of the Dufour map, and its initial work contributed to the design of the Topographic Atlas of Switzerland. In 1861, Johan Jacob Baeyer had proposed the creation of the Central European Arc Measurement, whose objective was to redetermine anomalies in the shape of the Earth using precise geodetic surveys combined with gravimetry. The aim was to figure out the geoid using gravimetric and leveling measurements to derive an accurate understanding of the Earth ellipsoid while taking vertical deflections into account.

He died in Geneva in 1882.

Works