Secretan was a company based in Paris, France that manufactured telescopes and other scientific instruments.

History

In 1845, Marc Secretan (1804–1867), a Swiss mathematician, and

Noël Paymal Lerebours Noël Marie Paymal Lerebours (16 February 1807 – 23 July 1873) was a French optician and daguerreotypist. He is best known today for his ''Excursions Daguerriennes'', books of views of the world's monuments, based on early photographs redrawn ...

(1807–1873), a French optician, established a firm in Paris that manufactured precision instruments.P. Véron, dictionnaire des astronomes français 1850-1950.
/ref> In 1854, Secretan became the sole owner of the company, which continued to operate under the name Lerebours & Secretan. With popular interest in astronomy growing, the French physicist Léon Foucault (1819–1868) entered into an exclusive contract with Secretan for the commercialization of a reflecting telescope. Upon the death of Secretan in 1867, the company’s management first passed to his son Auguste François (1833–1874), and then to Auguste’s cousin Georges Emmanuel Secrétan (1837–1906). Around 1889, Georges Secrétan moved the company’s workshops to 30 rue du Faubourg Saint-Jacques, near the

Paris Observatory The Paris Observatory (french: Observatoire de Paris ), a research institution of the Paris Sciences et Lettres University, is the foremost astronomical observatory of France, and one of the largest astronomical centers in the world. Its histor ...

and appointed

Raymond Augustin Mailhat Raymond Augustin Jean-Baptiste Mailhat (28 March 1862 – 22 April 1923) was a French manufacturer of telescopes and precision optical instruments. Biography Raymond Mailhat was born on 28 March 1862 in Saurat ( Ariège), the son of Jean Be ...

(1862 – 1923) as their head from 1 January 1889. In 1894, Mailhat bought some of the workshops and set up his own business, while Secretan moved his equipment into a new location at 41, quai de l’Horloge, near to the company’s retail shop on the Place du Pont-Neuf. When Georges Secrétan died in 1906, his son Paul Victor (b. 1879) and daughter Alice (b. 1878) inherited the business, which they ran until 1911, when they sold it to Charles Épry. In 1913, Gustave Jacquelin (1879–1939) became Épry’s associate and the firm continued manufacturing and selling astronomical, scientific and optical products.Tobin, William (2016). Evolution of the Foucault-Secretan Reflecting Telescope. Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage. 19. 106-184.
/ref> In 1963, the Secretan company merged with the Henri Morin company, a producer of surveying and drawing equipment, and was renamed as the Etablissements H. Morin-Secretan.
/ref> Around 1967, that firm merged with the Société de Recherches et de Perfectionnements Industriels (SRPI), which operated until at least 1981.

References

{{reflist Telescope manufacturers

History

See also

References