VIOLLE, JULES(-LOUIS-GABRIEL)

born Nov. 16, 1841, Langres, Fr. died Sept. 12, 1923, Fixin French physicist who at Mont Blanc in the French-Swiss Alps made the first high-altitude determination of the solar constant (1875). A graduate of the cole Normale Suprieure at Paris, he taught at the University of Lyon (1883), then at the cole and, from 1891, at the Conservatoire des Arts et Mtiers, Paris. Violle also determined the fusion points of palladium, platinum, and gold. His interest in high-temperature radiation led to his proposing the photometric unit, violle, or Violle's standard. He was also interested in the theory of geysers, the origin of hail, and atmospheric exploration through balloon soundings.