He is known for his discovery of nickel-steel alloys he named invar and elinvar. Invar has a near-zero coefficient of thermal expansion, making it useful in constructing precision instruments whose dimensions need to remain constant in spite of varying temperature. Elinvar has a near-zero thermal coefficient of the modulus of elasticity, making it useful in constructing instruments with springs that need to be unaffected by varying temperature, such as the marine chronometer. Elinvar is also non-magnetic, which is a secondary useful property for antimagnetic watches.
He married A.M. Taufflieb in 1888, and together had three children.
Publications
Guillaume, Charles-Edouard (1896). "La Température de L'Espace (The Temperature of Space)". La Nature24.
Guillaume, Charles-Edouard (1886). "Études thermométriques(Studies on Thermometry)".
Guillaume, Charles-Edouard (1889). "Traité de thermométrie (Treatise on Thermometry)".
Guillaume, Charles-Edouard (1894). "Unités et Étalons (Units and Standards)".
Guillaume, Charles-Edouard (1896). "Les rayons X (X-Rays)".
Guillaume, Charles-Edouard (1898). "Recherches sur le nickel et ses alliages (Investigations on Nickel and its Alloys)".
Guillaume, Charles-Edouard (1899). "La vie de la matière (The Life of Matter)".
Guillaume, Charles-Edouard (1902). "La Convention du Mètre et le Bureau international des Poids et Mesures (Metrical Convention and the International Bureau of Weights and Measures)".
Guillaume, Charles-Edouard (1904). "Les applications des aciers au nickel (Applications of Nickel-Steels)".
Guillaume, Charles-Edouard (1907). "Des états de la matière (States of Matter)".
Guillaume, Charles-Edouard (1907, 1913). "Les récents progrès du système métrique (Recent progress in the Metric System) journal=".
Guillaume, Charles-Edouard. "Initiation à la Mécanique (Introduction to Mechanics)".