Invar
Winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1920, Neuchâtel-born Charles-Edouard Guillaume discovered an alloy which neither expanded nor contracted as a result of temperature changes. Invar has not only contributed to timekeeping precision but continues to play a key role in cutting-edge manufacturing technologies such as satellites or the Airbus A380.
Invar and its derivatives have freed watchmakers, electronic tube and screen manufacturers, and giant metal tank makers from what had long been regarded as an insurmountable constraint: the tendency of metals to change in size depending on the temperature. The manufacture or use of familiar objects is significantly complicated, and sometimes prevented, as a result of a clock balance or a watch spring extending or contracting, an electronic tube plate distorting, or a tank or mould swelling or deflating on ac