Théodore Cyprien Tiffereau, born in

Sainte-Radégonde-des-Noyers Sainte-Radégonde-des-Noyers () is a commune in the Vendée department in the Pays de la Loire region in western France. Notable people * Théodore Tiffereau (1819–1909), photographer and alchemist See also *Communes of the Vendée depart ...

, on June 23, 1819, and died in Arvert (

Charente-Maritime Charente-Maritime (; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Chérente-Marine''; ) is a Departments of France, department in the French Regions of France, region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, on the country's west coast. Named after the river Charente (river), Charen ...

) on March 9, 1909, was a French photographer and

alchemist Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...

. He studied chemistry and physics at the Professional School 2 of Nantes, he is also a chemistry trainer there. Tiffereau traveled to Mexico from 1842 to 1847, from where he brought back

daguerreotype Daguerreotype was the first publicly available photography, photographic process, widely used during the 1840s and 1850s. "Daguerreotype" also refers to an image created through this process. Invented by Louis Daguerre and introduced worldwid ...

s of landscapes and native Mexicans. Between 1854 and 1855, he presented six memoirs to the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...

concerning the transmutation of silver into gold. In particular, he claimed that silver from Mexico possessed specific chemical properties allowing this transmutation. His claims were described in the contemporary chemical theories, and were deemed important enough and plausible enough that the Academy of Sciences made a committee to investigate his claims.

References

1819 births 1909 deaths People from Vendée 19th-century French photographers 20th-century French photographers French alchemists 19th-century alchemists 20th-century alchemists {{France-photographer-stub