Jean Baptiste Joseph Gentil

Transcription

(sigh) Considering the failure display that this guy is Today in "La preuve par vieux" we're gonna call him Guigui ! Guigui is a french astronomer born in 1725 who became famous in history for his misfortune, his lack of luck anyway this guy was so much in failing mode that what we're gonna do today, exceptionnally, is we're gonna put a fail counter here in the corner, so that you really get what it's like. Edmund Halley the guy who discovered the Halley comet, once got an idea he thought : "hey..." "if we study transit of Venus, we should be able to measure" "quite precisely the Earth-Sun distance" So, to explain what the transit of Venus is, it's when Venus goes through an axis between Earth and Sun so, in a way, it's kind of like Venus is eclipsing the Sun but as Venus is very far and not so big, in fact it is way smaller than the Sun so it looks like a tiny black disc, crossing through the Sun. The idea of Edmund Halley is that if we can manage to measure this crossing, from different points on Earth we'll be able, through a parallax system which i won't explain now, it ain't the point, we'll be able to measure precisely the Earth-Sun distance. Mikhail Lomonosov wanted to use this system, and therefore asked for a hundred astronomers to put themselves in different points of the globe to take this measure Guigui... will thus decide to go to Pondicherry, India which was a french province then, to get the measure from this place. At this time, there was no Suez channel, which meant that you had to take the boat and go through, all around Africa —well, a long trip — but he decided to go into this with a bit of a bit of margin, and he thought he'd be gone for 13, 14 months 15 months at most. The phenomenon is supposed to happen in june 1761, so he leaves in march 1760; he goes around Africa and gets, in july on the island of France. The island of France is what we call today the Mauritius island. From there on he's gonna leave in march 1761 boarding a fast frigate called Sylphide destination : Pondicherry. Arriving close to Pondicherry, they learn that war broke out between french and brits, and that they have to go backward, considering that Pondiccherry is not anymore a safe place at all. So they go back, destination : the island of France. Guigui hopes that he'll be able to take his measures from the island of France but they are not there yet the day it happens. The problem is that transit of Venus takes place in june 1761, while they're still at sea So he's gonna try to take his measures, from the boat he is going to try, to take precise measures from.... a boat. The weather is very clear, so he has a clear view, but the boat moves so he cannot measure anything. What you need to know about transit of Venus is that it is a cyclic phenomenon, but with a slightly particular rule : when it happens, you know it's going to happen again in 8 years, and then it won't happen for the next 100 years. And then it's gonna happen once again, and then 8 years later and then nothing for the next 100 or 105 years. So he decides to stay in the area, so he can take his measures, 8 years later in Pondicherry. So while waiting he's gonna try to kill time. He's gonna study the eastern coast of Madagascar which is interesting on a geographical point of view and then, at some point, he heads towards Manille to get ready to take his measure. The problem is, in Manille, the spanish take him for a spy and so they gently chuck him out. In between, peace came back between the french and the brits the french got Pondicherry back, so he goes back to Pondicherry. He gets in Pondicherry in march 1769 before the next transit of Venus, which will happen in june 1769. So then he decides to do things big. So he does it biiiig... he has an observatory built. And as he wants to do it really really well, what he does is he's doing a whole load of tests once the observatory's built, so that he regularly takes measures, even if there is nothing to see yet concerning Venus, but he sees that he can follow the Sun, that everything is running well, that he makes fine observations, the weather is fantastic the weather is fan-tas-tic until the day of the transit of Venus ! June the 3rd 1769, he is there to observe the transit of Venus, — everything is ready — The transit of Venus is a phenomenon that lasts 3 to 6 hours, and it happens that, on june the 3rd 1769, is roughly the time when the sky is going to get misty and foggy So he is goind to see.....sh*t ! The guy, he's not a jinx... Guigui... he's the King Jinx ! because it's not over yet... So Guigui gets a little depressed, he decides to back towards well he wants to go back to France —he has left his wife now since... nine years! so... pretty harsh, right ? So from Pondicherry he takes a boat, that shall nicely bring him back. What happens is that : first, his departure is delayed because he gets dysentery Then, the boat he is on... gets caught in a storm... and casts away on Bourbon island, now knowned as the Réunion island (dammit). From there, he is gonna have to wait that a spanish boat finally takes him and brings him back to Europe, and then — step by step — he will finally get back to Paris in march 1771, so precisely 11 years after he left for a trip that was supposed to take 15 months... at most. Until now you could say: ok, ok, the guy is a loser — he is a loser — but it doesn't end there ! (nope) It doesn't end there cause we are gonna have a fail combo which is that: between ships sinking, being hacked or just stuff getting lost, none of the letters sent to his wife, to the Royal Academy of Sciences or to Paris None of his mail ever got to its destination. None. Which means that when he gets to Paris, he realises that actually it's been several years since he's been declared dead that his wife remarried that he has lost his job at the Royal Academy of Sciences since his position was vacant, it has been taken by someone else and that his heirs are about to split up his possessions. Ok... It isn't a disaster, he is going to try to make up for it Ok his wife who remarried that's harsh, well, because, well but still he is gonna try to — at least — get back his belongings So he decides to take his heirs to court, to say "No, no...wait here, I'm alive..." "...you, give me back my stuff !" Of course, he had an authorised representative, managing his wealth so he still has some cash. So his representative comes to give him his money back, and he gets his money stolen while he is on the way to bring it back to him. So he then goes to his lawsuit to try and defend himself the best he can, saying "I am alive, this heritage shouldn't be distributed yet." "it is mine..." He is going to lose this lawsuit be sentenced to pay for the adverse party and in fact it is going to take a second trial, where the King himself will directly intervene so that Guigui... can at least get a position back at the Royal Academy of Sciences but his wife is still gone, and his wealth still lost. The story doesn't end up too bad for him... as he is going to meet a new woman to whom he gets married they are going to have a daughter together and live roughly happy for another 20 years while living at the Royal Observatory and he will die in 1782. Apart from that, it's a freakin' Losapalooza ! So why talk about Guigui, of Guillaume le Gentil, of Guillaume Joseph Hyacinthe Jean-Baptiste le Gentil de la Galaisière... because, out of the hundred that went out to take the measures of Venus at that time he is roughly the only one we still remember today but it was also to say something, keep that at the back of your mind Everybody knows the names of Einstein, Madame Curie, Isaac Newton, Galilée, Copernic... Even if we don't allways know what they did, we know there names and for each Einstein or for each Isaac Newton there are 100, 500, 1,000 or 5,000 scientists that dedicate their entire life to researching Guigui le Gentil, he left 11 years He left to build an observatory at the bottom of the wolrd to take a measure, that nobody needed !! They were a hundred to take these measures, they managed without his but he wanted to be part of that thing. The guy was completely devoted to the cause Scientists that dedicate their entire life to science that keep researching through their lives potentially without ever finding anything. And I believe it's important from time to time, to have a little thought for them. even if, in that case of Guigui, it's... (laughs) that's it for today for "La preuve par vieux" thanks to you and thanks to Guigui. I love Guigui ! He's my hero 194 00:09:27,230 --> 00:09:30,870 Guigui, 2 500 years ago, he would have been "bématiste" and his camel would have died... drowned [translation: Oho Livia - thanks from e-penser]