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EDOUARD BENJAMIN BAILLAUD was born on 14 February 1848 at Chalon-sur-Saône. Except for Deslandres and Donner very few of his contemporary astronomical colleagues survive. They included Abetti, Backlund, Belopolsky, Celoria, Christie, Gill, Hagen, Paul and Prosper Henry, Kapteyn, Knobel, Pickering and Seeliger, with most of whom he was associated in the work of the Astrographic Catalogue and Chart. In 1866 he was a student at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, and in 1869 was Professor in the Lycée Fontane, till in 1872 he became Elève Astronome at the Paris Observatory, becoming Aide Astronome in 1874. In 1877 he lectured at the Sorbonne on dynamical astronomy as a substitute for Leverrier. After Leverrier's death in September of the same year, Tisserand was appointed to the Paris Observatory and was succeeded by Baillaud in Toulouse. Baillaud stayed here from 1878 to 1907, when he was appointed Director of the Paris Observatory. He was interested in planetary theory and wrote on the development of the perturbing function, investigated the orbits of the five interior satellites of Saturn and discussed the numerical calculation of definite integrals by quadrature methods. He made a long series of observations of the satellites of Saturn and made a few measures of double stars, but was generally more interested in the discussion of observations. On his staff at Toulouse were Bigourdan, who began his interest in historical astronomy with a History of the Toulouse Observatory, and Andoyer, who wrote papers "On the General Formula of Celestial Mechanics" and "Inequalities in the Longitude of the Moon," which he compared with Delaunay and thus checked the formula of that theory. The main work of the Toulouse Observatory was observations of sunspots from 1879 onwards, equatorial observations of satellites and double stars, and meridian observations, including observations of the Moon. When the project for the Carte du Ciel was originated, Baillaud joined with enthusiasm and undertook the zone from 5° to 10° N. The catalogue plates centred at 5°, 7°, and 9° were duly photographed, measured, and published, and the charts were also taken in hand. Baillaud realized the importance of having reference stars at the same epoch, and with a new meridian circle, 3,719 stars were observed between the years 1891 and 1900.
The University of Toulouse availed itself of Baillaud's administrative ability, and after a few years chose him as Dean of the Faculty of Science. A large increase in the number of chairs was a result, and of special interest to astronomers was the establishment, due to his foresight, of an observatory on the Pic du Midi.
In 1907, Baillaud succeeded Loewy as Director of the Paris Observatory. This observatory, founded by Louis XIV in 1667, is in the heart of Paris and, in modern times, has suffered from the illumination of the city and the vibrations caused by street traffic. Baillaud was anxious to move to a more suitable site, but it has been left to his successor to establish a new observatory at Forcalquier in the Basses-Alpes. He was in close relationship with his friend General Ferrié, who was in charge of the wireless station at the Eiffel Tower. When the emission of time signals was started by General Ferrié, he naturally applied to Baillaud for accurate time from the observatory. The possession of a very deep cellar in which the clocks were installed was of great service in keeping the rates fairly constant between successive astronomical determinations, so that the times sent from the Eiffel Tower were usually very accurate. When the War came, the younger members of the staff, including Baillaud's two sons, were called up. He kept the time signal service of the Eiffel Tower all through the War, frequently making the adjustments with his own hands. He strongly supported General Ferrié's scheme of a complete girdle around the world of accurately determined longitudes, carried out in 1926 and repeated in 1933.
Since the foundation of the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures, with its centre at Breteuil in 1875, and still more since the inception of the Carte du Ciel in 1887, Paris, until the War, became the international astronomical centre. In 1909 a Conference of the Carte du Ciel was held, at which the results obtained from the observations of Eros in 1900-1 were under discussion. In this connection, Mr. Hinks writes: "I can never be grateful enough to Baillaud for the way he supported my Eros work." In 1911, the Directors of the National Ephemerides met a number of leading observational astronomers to secure a suitable division of work by the different countries, resulting in a marked increase in the data of the Almanacs. In the same year, an informal conference on the dissemination of time by wireless signals met, and in the following year a more formal conference was called together. A Commission Internationale de l'Heure was created, with a bureau at Paris. At these conferences, Baillaud presided with dignity and unfailing courtesy. In 1913, he attended the meeting of the Solar Union at Bonn, and the writer remembers an eloquent speech made by Baillaud at a farewell banquet at Cologne on the effect of such conferences not only on astronomy but also in tending towards peaceful and happy relationships between nations. The War followed in 1914. In 1919, a new start was made by the formation of the International Research Council, and by it the International Astronomical Union and other similar unions were constituted. Baillaud, who had been at the 1887 conference when the Carte du Ciel was initiated, was elected the first President. He conducted the meeting at Rome in 1922 with the urbanity and kindly feeling which was natural to him. At this conference, Professor Turner succeeded him as President of the Commission of the Carte du Ciel, and As a tribute to his previous services, Baillaud was unanimously elected President d'Honneur of the Commission. In his final address to the Union, he maintained that in spite of the difficulties and sufferings of the War, he was still an optimist and looked for a happy future for astronomers and the world at large. He attended the meeting of the Union at Cambridge in 1925 and was given the Honorary degree of Sc.D. by the University. He continued in the directorship of the Paris Observatory until 1926 and was given the title of Honorary Director.
The University of Toulouse availed itself of Baillaud's administrative ability, and after a few years chose him as Dean of the Faculty of Science. A large increase in the number of chairs was a result, and of special interest to astronomers was the establishment, due to his foresight, of an observatory on the Pic du Midi.
In 1907, Baillaud succeeded Loewy as Director of the Paris Observatory. This observatory, founded by Louis XIV in 1667, is in the heart of Paris and, in modern times, has suffered from the illumination of the city and the vibrations caused by street traffic. Baillaud was anxious to move to a more suitable site, but it has been left to his successor to establish a new observatory at Forcalquier in the Basses-Alpes. He was in close relationship with his friend General Ferrié, who was in charge of the wireless station at the Eiffel Tower. When the emission of time signals was started by General Ferrié, he naturally applied to Baillaud for accurate time from the observatory. The possession of a very deep cellar in which the clocks were installed was of great service in keeping the rates fairly constant between successive astronomical determinations, so that the times sent from the Eiffel Tower were usually very accurate. When the War came, the younger members of the staff, including Baillaud's two sons, were called up. He kept the time signal service of the Eiffel Tower all through the War, frequently making the adjustments with his own hands. He strongly supported General Ferrié's scheme of a complete girdle around the world of accurately determined longitudes, carried out in 1926 and repeated in 1933.
Since the foundation of the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures, with its centre at Breteuil in 1875, and still more since the inception of the Carte du Ciel in 1887, Paris, until the War, became the international astronomical centre. In 1909 a Conference of the Carte du Ciel was held, at which the results obtained from the observations of Eros in 1900-1 were under discussion. In this connection, Mr. Hinks writes: "I can never be grateful enough to Baillaud for the way he supported my Eros work." In 1911, the Directors of the National Ephemerides met a number of leading observational astronomers to secure a suitable division of work by the different countries, resulting in a marked increase in the data of the Almanacs. In the same year, an informal conference on the dissemination of time by wireless signals met, and in the following year a more formal conference was called together. A Commission Internationale de l'Heure was created, with a bureau at Paris. At these conferences, Baillaud presided with dignity and unfailing courtesy. In 1913, he attended the meeting of the Solar Union at Bonn, and the writer remembers an eloquent speech made by Baillaud at a farewell banquet at Cologne on the effect of such conferences not only on astronomy but also in tending towards peaceful and happy relationships between nations. The War followed in 1914. In 1919, a new start was made by the formation of the International Research Council, and by it the International Astronomical Union and other similar unions were constituted. Baillaud, who had been at the 1887 conference when the Carte du Ciel was initiated, was elected the first President. He conducted the meeting at Rome in 1922 with the urbanity and kindly feeling which was natural to him. At this conference, Professor Turner succeeded him as President of the Commission of the Carte du Ciel, and As a tribute to his previous services, Baillaud was unanimously elected President d'Honneur of the Commission. In his final address to the Union, he maintained that in spite of the difficulties and sufferings of the War, he was still an optimist and looked for a happy future for astronomers and the world at large. He attended the meeting of the Union at Cambridge in 1925 and was given the Honorary degree of Sc.D. by the University. He continued in the directorship of the Paris Observatory until 1926 and was given the title of Honorary Director.
Edouard Benjamin Baillaud's obituary appeared in Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 95:4 (1935), 334-336.