Antoine César Becquerel (7 March 178818 January 1878) was a French scientist and a pioneer in the study of electric and
luminescent
Luminescence is spontaneous emission of light by a substance not resulting from heat; or "cold light".
It is thus a form of cold-body radiation. It can be caused by chemical reactions, electrical energy, subatomic motions or stress on a cryst ...
phenomena.
Life
He was born at Châtillon-sur-Loing (today
Châtillon-Coligny
Châtillon-Coligny () is a commune in the Loiret department in north-central France.
The Loing and the Briare Canal run through the town.
Sights and monuments
* Château de Châtillon-Coligny
Notable people
*Gaspard I de Coligny (c.1465-1522 ...
). After passing through the
École polytechnique
École may refer to:
* an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée)
* École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France
* École, Savoi ...
he became engineer-officer in 1808, and saw active service with the imperial troops in Spain from 1810 to 1812, and again in France in 1814. He then resigned from the army and devoted the rest of his life to scientific investigation.
In 1820, following the work of
René Just Haüy
René Just Haüy () FRS MWS FRSE (28 February 1743 – 1 June 1822) was a French priest and mineralogist, commonly styled the Abbé Haüy after he was made an honorary canon of Notre Dame. Due to his innovative work on crystal structure and hi ...
, he found that pressure can induce electricity in every material, attributing the effect to surface interactions (this is not
piezoelectricity
Piezoelectricity (, ) is the electric charge that accumulates in certain solid materials—such as crystals, certain ceramics, and biological matter such as bone, DNA, and various proteins—in response to applied mechanical stress. The word ''p ...
). In 1825 he invented a differential
galvanometer
A galvanometer is an electromechanical measuring instrument for electric current. Early galvanometers were uncalibrated, but improved versions, called ammeters, were calibrated and could measure the flow of current more precisely.
A galvanom ...
for the accurate measurement of
electrical resistance
The electrical resistance of an object is a measure of its opposition to the flow of electric current. Its reciprocal quantity is , measuring the ease with which an electric current passes. Electrical resistance shares some conceptual parallels ...
. In 1829 he invented a constant-current electrochemical cell, the forerunner of the
Daniell cell
The Daniell cell is a type of electrochemical cell invented in 1836 by John Frederic Daniell, a British chemist and meteorologist, and consists of a copper pot filled with a copper (II) sulfate solution, in which is immersed an unglazed earthenw ...
. In 1839, working with his son
A. E. Becquerel
Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel (24 March 1820 – 11 May 1891), known as Edmond Becquerel, was a French physicist who studied the solar spectrum, magnetism, electricity and optics. He is credited with the discovery of the photovoltaic effect, the ope ...
, he discovered the
photovoltaic effect
The photovoltaic effect is the generation of voltage and electric current in a material upon exposure to light. It is a physical property, physical and chemical phenomenon.
The photovoltaic effect is closely related to the photoelectric effect. F ...
on an electrode immersed in a conductive liquid.
His earliest work was mineralogical in character, but he soon turned his attention to the study of
electricity
Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...
and especially of
electrochemistry
Electrochemistry is the branch of physical chemistry concerned with the relationship between electrical potential difference, as a measurable and quantitative phenomenon, and identifiable chemical change, with the potential difference as an outco ...
. In 1837 he became a Fellow of the
Royal Society
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
, and received its
Copley Medal
The Copley Medal is an award given by the Royal Society, for "outstanding achievements in research in any branch of science". It alternates between the physical sciences or mathematics and the biological sciences. Given every year, the medal is t ...
for his various memoirs on electricity, and particularly for those on the production of metallic sulphurets and sulphur by
electrolysis
In chemistry and manufacturing, electrolysis is a technique that uses direct electric current (DC) to drive an otherwise non-spontaneous chemical reaction. Electrolysis is commercially important as a stage in the separation of elements from n ...
. He was the first to prepare metallic elements from their
ore
Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically containing metals, that can be mined, treated and sold at a profit.Encyclopædia Britannica. "Ore". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 7 Apr ...
s by this method. It was hoped that this would lead to increased knowledge of the recomposition of crystallized bodies, and the processes which may have been employed by nature in the production of such bodies in the mineral kingdom.
In biochemistry he worked at the problems of animal heat and at the phenomena accompanying the growth of plants, and he also devoted much time to meteorological questions and observations. He was a prolific writer. He died in Paris, where from 1837 he had been professor of physics at the
Museum d'Histoire Naturelle
The French National Museum of Natural History, known in French as the ' (abbreviation MNHN), is the national natural history museum of France and a ' of higher education part of Sorbonne Universities. The main museum, with four galleries, is loc ...
.
He became a correspondent of the Royal Institute in 1836, when that became the
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...
in 1851, he became a foreign member.
He was the father of the physicist
A. E. Becquerel
Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel (24 March 1820 – 11 May 1891), known as Edmond Becquerel, was a French physicist who studied the solar spectrum, magnetism, electricity and optics. He is credited with the discovery of the photovoltaic effect, the ope ...
and grandfather of the physicist
Henri Becquerel
Antoine Henri Becquerel (; 15 December 1852 – 25 August 1908) was a French engineer, physicist, Nobel laureate, and the first person to discover evidence of radioactivity. For work in this field he, along with Marie Skłodowska-Curie and P ...
after whom the
SI unit
The International System of Units, known by the international abbreviation SI in all languages and sometimes pleonastically as the SI system, is the modern form of the metric system and the world's most widely used system of measurement. E ...
for radioactivity, the
becquerel
The becquerel (; symbol: Bq) is the unit of radioactivity in the International System of Units (SI). One becquerel is defined as the activity of a quantity of radioactive material in which one nucleus decays per second. For applications relatin ...
(Bq), is named.
His surname is one of the
72 names inscribed on the Eiffel Tower.
Works
* ''Traité de l'électricité et du magnétisme'', 7 volumes, 1834-1840
Vol. 2vol. 5
* ''Éléments de physique terrestre et de météorologie'', 1841.
* ''Traité de physique considérée dans ses rapports avec la chimie et les sciences naturelles'', 2 volumes, 1842.
Éléments d'électro-chimie appliquée aux sciences naturelles et aux arts 1843.
**
* ''Traité complet du magnétisme'', 1846.
* ''Traité de physique appliquée à la chimie et aux sciences naturelles'', 2 volumes, 1847.
*
* ''Traité d'électricité et de magnétisme, leurs applications aux sciences physiques, aux arts et à l'industrie'', 3 volumes, 1855-1856.
**
**
**
*
* ''Traité d'électrochimie'', 1865.
*
See also
*
List of works by Eugène Guillaume
The following is a list of works by French sculptor Jean-Baptiste Claude Eugène Guillaume.
Works in cathedrals and churches
Beaux-arts de Paris, l'école nationale supérieure
Guillaume was a pupil of the school and won the 1845 Prix de Rome ...
*
A. E. Becquerel
Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel (24 March 1820 – 11 May 1891), known as Edmond Becquerel, was a French physicist who studied the solar spectrum, magnetism, electricity and optics. He is credited with the discovery of the photovoltaic effect, the ope ...
(his son)
*
Henri Becquerel
Antoine Henri Becquerel (; 15 December 1852 – 25 August 1908) was a French engineer, physicist, Nobel laureate, and the first person to discover evidence of radioactivity. For work in this field he, along with Marie Skłodowska-Curie and P ...
, (his grandson)
*
Jean Becquerel
Jean Antoine Edmond Marie Becquerel (5 February 1878 – 4 July 1953) was a French physicist, the son of Antoine-Henri Becquerel. He worked on a range of experimental physics topics including magnetic effects on the optical properties of materials ...
(his great-grandson)
Notes
References
*
Royal Society (brief biographical details)
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Becquerel, Antoine Cesar
1788 births
1878 deaths
People from Loiret
French physicists
French Roman Catholics
Recipients of the Copley Medal
École Polytechnique alumni
Foreign Members of the Royal Society
Members of the French Academy of Sciences
Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences