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FRANCOIS FELIX TISSERAND (1845-1896)

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 1015 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FRANCOIS See also:FELIX See also:TISSERAND (1845-1896)  , See also:French astronomer, was See also:born at Nuits-See also:Saint-Georges, Cote-d'Or, on the 13th of See also:January 1845 . In 1863 he entered the Ecole Normale Superieure, and on leaving he went for a See also:month as See also:professor at the lycee at See also:Metz . Le Verrier offered him a See also:post in the See also:Paris See also:Observatory, which he accordingly entered as astronome adjoint in See also:September 1866 . In 1868 he took his See also:doctor's degree with a brilliant thesis on See also:Delaunay's Method, which he showed to be of much wider See also:scope than had been contemplated by its inventor . Shortly afterwards he went out to Malacca to observe the famous See also:solar See also:eclipse of the 18th of See also:August 1868 . In 1873 he was appointed director of the observatory at See also:Toulouse, whence he published his Recueil d'exercices sur le calcul infinitesimal, and in 1874 became corresponding member of the See also:Academic See also:des Sciences . He took See also:part in the French expeditions of 1874 to See also:Japan, and in 1882 to See also:Martinique to observe the transits of See also:Venus . In 1878 he was elected a member of the Academie des Sciences in See also:succession to Le Verrier, and became a member of the See also:Bureau des Longitudes . In the same See also:year he was appointed professeur suppleant to Lionville, and in 1883 he succeeded Puiseux in the See also:chair of See also:celestial See also:mechanics at the See also:Sorbonne . See also:Tisserand always found See also:time to continue his important researches in mathematical See also:astronomy, and the pages of the See also:Corn pies rendus See also:bear See also:witness to his surprising activity . His writings relate to almost every See also:branch of celestial mechanics, and are always distinguished by rigour and simplicity in the See also:solution of the mdst difficult problems . He treated in a masterly manner (Bulletin astronomique, 1889) the theory of the See also:capture of comets by the larger See also:planets, and in this connexion published his valuable Criterion for establishing the identity of a periodic See also:comet, whatever may have been the perturbations brought about in its See also:orbit, between successive appearances, by the See also:action of a See also:planet .

His See also:

principal See also:work, Traite de mecanique See also:celeste, is the noblest and most lasting See also:monument to his memory, and is worthy to stand beside the Mecanique celeste of his See also:fellow-countryman, See also:Laplace . In this See also:treatise, published in four See also:quarto volumes, the last of which appeared only a few months before his See also:death, he fused into one harmonious whole the researches of Laplace and those of other workers in the same See also:field since his time . It furnishes a faithful and See also:complete resume of the See also:state of knowledge in that See also:department of astronomy at the end, as Laplace's See also:great work did for the beginning, of the 19th See also:century . In 1892 he succeeded See also:Mouchez as director of the Paris Observatory, and as See also:president of the See also:committee of the photographic See also:chart of the heavens he contributed largely to the success of that great project . Under his direction the revision of See also:Lalande's See also:catalogue was brought almost to completion, and four volumes of the Annales de l'Observatoire de Paris exhibit the progress made in this important undertaking . He was also editor of the Bulletin astronomique from the beginning, and contributed many important articles to its pages . He died suddenly, in the fullness of his See also:power, of congestion of the See also:brain, on the loth of See also:October 1896 . (A . A .

End of Article: FRANCOIS FELIX TISSERAND (1845-1896)
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