Jacques-Arsène d'Arsonval (8 June 1851 – 31 December 1940) was a French

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

and inventor of the moving-coil d'Arsonval galvanometer and the

thermocouple A thermocouple, also known as a "thermoelectrical thermometer", is an electrical device consisting of two dissimilar electrical conductors forming an electrical junction. A thermocouple produces a temperature-dependent voltage as a result of the ...

ammeter An ammeter (abbreviation of ''ampere meter'') is an measuring instrument, instrument used to measure the electric current, current in a Electrical circuit, circuit. Electric currents are measured in amperes (A), hence the name. For direct measure ...

. D'Arsonval was an important contributor to the emerging field of

electrophysiology Electrophysiology (from ee the Electron#Etymology, etymology of "electron" ; and ) is the branch of physiology that studies the electrical properties of biological cell (biology), cells and tissues. It involves measurements of voltage change ...

, the study of the effects of

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...

on biological organisms, in the nineteenth century.

Life

D'Arsonval was born in the Château de la Borie, in La Porcherie, Haute Vienne, France. He studied medicine in Limoges and Paris and obtained his medical degree in 1877. From 1873 to 1878 he was assistant to

Claude Bernard Claude Bernard (; 12 July 1813 – 10 February 1878) was a French physiologist. I. Bernard Cohen of Harvard University called Bernard "one of the greatest of all men of science". He originated the term ''milieu intérieur'' and the associated c ...

, one of the founders of experimental

physiology Physiology (; ) is the science, scientific study of function (biology), functions and mechanism (biology), mechanisms in a life, living system. As a branches of science, subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ syst ...

. After Bernard’s death he assisted Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard (1817-1894), giving his lectures, and when Brown-Séquard died in 1894 replaced him as professor at

College de France A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary education, tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding academic degree, degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further educatio ...

. Influenced by Bernard, d'Arsonval decided to devote his life to research. In 1892, he became director of the new laboratory of biophysics at the College de France and continued in that post until 1910. His main contributions were in

. From 1889 d'Arsonval did the first research on the physiological effects of

alternating current Alternating current (AC) is an electric current that periodically reverses direction and changes its magnitude continuously with time, in contrast to direct current (DC), which flows only in one direction. Alternating current is the form in w ...

on the body. He discovered that currents with frequency over 5,000 Hz did not cause the muscular contractions and nerve stimulation effects of

electric shock An electrical injury (electric injury) or electrical shock (electric shock) is damage sustained to the skin or internal organs on direct contact with an electric current. The injury depends on the Current density, density of the current, tissu ...

. Instead they seemed to have beneficial effects. He pioneered the therapeutic application of high frequency current to the body, founding the field of

electrotherapy Electrotherapy is the use of electrical energy as a medical treatment. In medicine, the term ''electrotherapy'' can apply to a variety of treatments, including the use of electrical devices such as deep brain stimulators for neurological disea ...

. He developed a spark-excited resonant circuit to generate currents of 0.5-2 MHz called "D'Arsonval currents" for therapy, which became known as "D'Arsonvalization". It was later used for

diathermy Diathermy is electrically induced heat or the use of high-frequency electromagnetic currents as a form of physical therapy and in surgical procedures. The earliest observations on the reactions of the human organism to high-frequency electromagn ...

. In 1881, d'Arsonval proposed tapping the thermal energy of the ocean. D'Arsonval's student,

Georges Claude Georges Claude (24 September 187023 May 1960) was a French engineer and inventor. He is noted for his early work on the industrial liquefaction of air, for the invention and commercialization of neon lighting, and for a large experiment on gener ...

, built the first

ocean thermal energy conversion Ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) is a renewable energy technology that harnesses the thermocline, temperature difference between the photic zone, warm surface waters of the ocean and the deep sea, cold depths to run a heat engine to produce ...

(OTEC) plant in

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

in 1930. He was awarded the Prix Montyon in 1882 and was appointed a Chevalier of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

in 1884, with Grand Cross in 1931.Lance Day, Ian McNeil, '' Biographical Dictionary of the History of Technology'' Routledge, 2003 pp. 45–46

References

External links

*https://web.archive.org/web/20040419113144/http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/~eugeniik/history/arsonval.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Arsonval, Jacques Arsene D 1851 births 1940 deaths Academic staff of the Collège de France Members of the French Academy of Sciences 19th-century French inventors French physiologists 19th-century French physicists French biophysicists

Life

See also

References

Further reading

External links